North Liberty coffee roaster raises thousands for Guatemala mission, one bean at a time

NORTH LIBERTY — For most people, waking up to the world around them happens one sip at a time. For a North Liberty couple, a similar awakening happened during their mission trip to Guatemala in 2018 — their second trip to the Central American country.

“The second year completely changed our hearts. I would go into these villages and these people literally have nothing. I would cry every night,” Julie Farmer said.

So when the couple came home, they did something about it. In lieu of buying things for herself, Julie started collecting backpacks and black shoes at sales.

“I didn’t need any material things for myself anymore,” she said. “We needed to do something to support this mission, to keep it going.”

They kept fundraising for missions, even though they haven’t been back to Guatemala since 2018. But both concede that there’s nothing fun about fundraising.

So in January 2019, Mark Farmer, a longtime coffee roaster hobbyist, pitched in by upgrading his hot air popcorn popper to a 1-pound — later, 6-pound — commercial coffee roaster. It wasn’t all for him — it was a new model for their missions fundraising they could do all year long without running into donor fatigue.

Now, their nonprofit coffee roastery, Guat’s Up, has found a way to marry America’s preferred source of caffeine with a way to support their favorite mission.

“When you’re raising money, it always seems like you’re asking the same people,” Mark said. “So we wanted to do something where they can get a good product, and part of what they pay for goes to support the mission.”

Through light, medium, dark and espresso roasts, Mark has turned a few beans at a time into 10,000 pounds of coffee and more than $30,000 for missions in Guatemala in less than 3 years. Through mostly one-pound bags and little overhead thanks to the roaster in their garage, all the profit goes directly to support those in need.

The beans, sourced from an international supplier in partnership with small coffee farmers around the world, primarily come from the Huehuetenengo region of Guatemala, where beans in low acidity make for a smooth and well-balanced medium roast. There, farmers can fit more than 1,000 coffee trees per acre.

Guat’s Up purchases its specialty coffee, all high-grade Arabica, from the top 20 percent of graded beans in the world.

The art of roasting coffee is mostly in the temperature and technique. With no additives, Mark Farmer roasts his beans at 400 degrees and listens carefully to the “cracking points” — similar to how popcorn pops. After about 15 minutes, coffee is cooled.

Through a Swiss Water decaffeination process, Guat’s Up also offers a decaf coffee processed without chemicals — unlike most decaf coffees.

“Our coffee is as good any anybody else’s coffee, but our mission is great,” said Mark, 71.

But even with all other things being roughly equal to for-profit competitors, a number of restaurants and retailers have taken notice of the brand’s mission — including Hy-Vee, which stocks the coffee in several Corridor stores around Coralville and Cedar Rapids and chose the brand as one of its “Best of Local.”

“We saw a real need. I thought if we can do something there, we’d make a difference,” said Mark, a pharmacist.

That’s a lesson he hopes others can take from Guat’s Up and apply to their own lives, no matter what they do.

“You can’t help everybody, but you can help somebody. People don’t know what to do — just do something,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be helping people in a foreign country. Shovel the neighbor’s walk, cut their grass.

“But just help somebody.”

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