Buy Great Coffee and Help Build a Digital Learning Center in Ethiopia
Project at-a-glance:
Where: Yirgacheffe Union Academy, Dilla, Ethiopia. A school with more than 350 students and just seven working computers.
What: $55,000. To purchase forty desktops, a server, networking equipment, a projector, and software.
How: Buy great coffee. Your choice of Royal Gem or full bags. 1. Select Royal Gems carry a $25-per-box contribution. 2. On full bags, ask your trader to add 50¢ per pound.
- ROYAL GEM ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC BANKO DHADHATO | Pluot, hibiscus, white tea, maple syrup
- ROYAL GEM ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC HALO BARITI | White peach, bergamot, rose, honey
- 39783 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC BANKO DHADHATO Pluot, hibiscus, white tea, maple syrup
- 39781 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC HALO BARITI White peach, bergamot, rose, honey
- 40522 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 1 NATURAL FT-FLO ORGANIC IDIDO – ETA: Sep 20, 2026 – RCWHSE
- 40524 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 1 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC IDIDO – ETA: Sep 20, 2026 – RCWHSE
Who: YCFCU will purchase, build, and run it, the same way they built their school.
This past January, a group of roasters, The Crown’s Tasting Room Manager, Josh Wismans and I joined Haileyesus Andualem the Director of Royal’s Addis Ababa Office, on a once-in-a-lifetime journey through Ethiopia’s legendary coffee-growing regions.
We spent days visiting washing stations and dry mills, meeting with producers and exporters, and discussing the harvest. For many of us, it was our first time in Ethiopia—and an experience we’ll never forget.
As part of the trip, we traveled south to visit the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU), one of Royal’s longest-standing suppliers. Along the way, we stopped at a school the cooperative had built for its community. We expected a quick visit. Instead, it became one of the most memorable moments of the entire trip.
Royal has worked with YCFCU for many years, sourcing some of Ethiopia’s most celebrated coffees through the union. Our relationship has always been about more than exceptional coffee. It’s built on transparency, mutual trust, and a shared belief that coffee should create lasting value in producing communities. Visiting the school was a powerful reminder of what that partnership can accomplish.
The school exists because YCFCU’s member cooperatives voted to invest their Fair Trade premiums in education. Fair Trade premiums are additional funds paid above the price of coffee. Unlike the payment for the coffee itself, these funds belong collectively to the cooperative, and members democratically decide how they’re used—whether for healthcare, clean water, infrastructure, or education. In this case, they chose to build a school.
As we finished our tour—walking through classrooms, watching students learn and play, and reflecting on everything we’d seen—the President of YCFCU Erkiyihun Hirbe casually said, “If you can help us build a computer lab, we’d be grateful.” It felt almost like a casual ending, no different than “Thank you for visiting.”
Over the next several days we kept coming back to the same thought: Let’s build the computer lab!
Visiting Ethiopia as someone who has spent years in coffee is both inspiring and humbling. Addis Ababa is a vibrant, modern city, but the contrast between the capital and many coffee-growing communities is impossible to ignore.
In moments like these, it’s easy to believe that the problems are simply too big—that meaningful change has to come from someone else. But it’s also a reminder that even relatively small contributions can have a lasting impact when they support communities already investing in themselves. This school is proof of that.
Before joining Royal, I spent nearly five years at Fair Trade USA, working alongside producers and roasters who believed Fair Trade coffee could be a force for positive change. Is Fair Trade perfect? No. Are there other ways to support coffee producers? Absolutely. But, I am a believer in the power of Fair Trade. And this school is a reminder of what it can be.
We stood in a school that wouldn’t exist without the decisions of the producers themselves. We saw classrooms filled with children who otherwise might not have had access to an education. We saw a school bus bring students in from surrounding communities. All of us were extremely moved.
And as a parent, I couldn’t help comparing the world my own child experiences with the realities facing so many children growing up in Ethiopia. The contrast felt real in that moment. The hope felt inspiring. I walked away teared up. Many of us did.
The choice is simple. I’ll choose a school over no school every time. And that school needs a Digital Learning Center.
How to Help Us Build the Digital Learning Center
Today we’re inviting the coffee community to help complete the school’s Digital Learning Center. Our goal is to raise $55,000. This will be enough to equip the lab with 40 desktop computers, a server, networking equipment, a projector, and the software needed to provide students with a modern computer education. There are two ways to support this initiative:
1. Buy Select Royal Gems
For every box of the below Royal Gems, Royal will contribute $25 per box toward the project. Royal Gems come with free shipping anywhere in the continental United States.
- ROYAL GEM ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC BANKO DHADHATO | Pluot, hibiscus, white tea, maple syrup
- ROYAL GEM ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC HALO BARITI | White peach, bergamot, rose, honey
2. Buy Select Full Bags
If you’re purchasing full bags, ask your trader about adding a 50¢ per pound donation to your order of these coffees.
- 39783 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC BANKO DHADHATO Pluot, hibiscus, white tea, maple syrup
- 39781 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 2 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC HALO BARITI White peach, bergamot, rose, honey
- 40522 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 1 NATURAL FT-FLO ORGANIC IDIDO – ETA: Sep 20, 2026 – RCWHSE
- 40524 ETHIOPIA YIRGACHEFFE 1 WASHED FT-FLO ORGANIC IDIDO – ETA: Sep 20, 2026 – RCWHSE
YCFCU will oversee the purchasing, construction, and implementation of the project. Just as they did when they built the school, the cooperative will manage the work locally, ensuring the investment serves students for years to come. We’ll also maintain a live campaign page so everyone can follow the fundraising progress and see exactly how the funds are being used.
Great coffee always tells a story. Sometimes it also creates the opportunity to help write the next chapter. These coffees are exceptional coffees on their own. This season, they’re also an opportunity to invest in the students who will shape the future of the communities that produced them.
If you’d like to help build the Digital Learning Center, please consider purchasing these coffees and join us in supporting YCFCU’s vision for the next generation.
Latest Articles by Richard Sandlin
Sourcing Green Coffee from Honduras, COMSA & Catracha
“Washed milds”. This is a term green coffee traders use to describe coffees from Central and South America that are typically clean, sweet, and relatively easy-drinking coffees. We all can...