Double Impact Benefits Burundian Women, NYC Youth

While 7,000 miles is a long journey between New York City and Burundi’s Butanyerera Province, the coffee (and its story) that crossed the oceans made the trip worthwhile. This coffee was so popular that young New York artists and Burundian women businessowners both benefited from a special coffee fundraiser held throughout the summer of 2025.

How did that work?

JNP Coffee bought green coffee from the women founders of our Turihamwe Turashobora coffees, sold it to New York roaster Joe Coffee, which in turn packaged it in colorful, custom-designed bags to support Lincoln Center’s Young Artist Pipeline (YAP) program.

(Photo Credit: Joe Coffee)

Because of these coffee sales, some 70 sixth and seventh graders – dancers, singers, artists and musicians – could participate in a special after-school arts program in midtown Manhattan and train with professionals at Lincoln Center.

And in Burundi, close to a dozen women business owners could invest in improvements to their washing station to ensure higher quality coffee production and expanded sales.

The coffee fundraiser built on Joe Coffee’s long-standing tradition of offering a themed giving coffee during the December holiday season. In 2024, “we decided to create a summer version of a seasonal coffee that’s specifically connected to giving and generosity,” said Amaris Gutierrez-Ray, Vice President of Coffee.

The 300-plus employees of Joe Coffee voted overwhelmingly to support YAP.

“So many up-and-coming artists work at Joe Coffee, the YAP program really resonated,” said Amaris.

Customers rounded up their purchases on several “round up” days in Joe Coffee cafés. Those donations, plus one dollar from each colorful 6-ounce bag sold have underwritten such expenses as dance gear, instrument rentals, performance tickets and meals, raising about $12,000 in two years. 

(Photo credit: Lincoln Center)

Easy Alliance with Turihamwe

Choosing Turihamwe coffee for the youth-focused fundraiser’s featured coffee was an easy decision for Amaris. “I immediately knew the coffee that I wanted to use for this summer project,” she said. “The values were aligned with this special coffee that matches all the things that we’re doing.”

“Surprised and excited” was the initial reaction of YAP’s director of emergent artist initiatives at Lincoln Center Dacia Washington after learning about Turihamwe coffee. It seemed appropriate to feature coffee grown and processed by a group of women entrepreneurs in Burundi for the fundraiser.  

“Anytime I hear about a less-than-traditional group succeeding in business, it’s exciting, because that is in alignment with the work I try to do with young people at Lincoln Center.”

In addition to buying coffee from the businesswomen of Turihamwe, JNP Coffee continues to focus on supporting youth in Burundi with training to enter the East African coffee industry.

The women behind Turihamwe coffee have also benefited from training and social support. Living in a country where women have had few property rights, the original founding group of seven women attended financial literacy classes offered to women coffee farmers supplying JNP Coffee.

In recognition for the quality of their coffee cherries and subsequent sales in global markets, JNP Coffee paid them a premium. They pooled their assets to build their own washing station, the first woman-owned and -built coffee processing center in Burundi.

Experiences not just equipment

YAP programming is offered at no cost to students and their families, so the support it receives from the coffee sales “is really just an enormous help,” said Dacia. Youth from neighborhoods across New York City travel to LaGuardia High School in Manhattan for five hours each Saturday.

They learn from professionals in dance, theater, voice, music and graphic arts and attend live performances with their families.

Dacia’s organization’s services go beyond equipment and lessons, however. “We are in the business not just of training them in the arts but also creating a social environment that is supportive for them.”  

(Photo Credit: Lincoln Center)

Collaboration on creative bag designs

For the fundraiser, Joe Coffee packaged the specialty coffee from JNP Coffee in five distinctive designs with different colored bags, one for each arts discipline represented in the YAP program. Continuing the collaborative theme, Joe Coffee’s Director of Creative & Special Projects Ned Semoff worked with YAP participants over the course of two Saturdays to develop the design for each bag.

• Youth in music, theater and voice took photos of themselves in action, creating silhouettes that represented their discipline: Holding a mask, arms reaching out as they sang, wearing a witch’s hat and holding a wand.

• Dancers painted their feet and reviewed dance positions.

• Graphic arts students discussed symbolism and identified symbols that represented various arts.

• Every student artist signed their first name so their signatures could appear on the back of the coffee bags.

(Photo Credit: Joe Coffee)

“We were thrilled to hear that our Turihamwe coffee was featured as part of this amazing fundraising program for Joe Coffee,” said Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, Founder and CEO of JNP Coffee. “I love the way one project can have a double impact – serving two communities in need.

“We deeply appreciate and sincerely value this partnership.”

Want to roast our women’s coffees yourself? Contact us at info@jnpcoffee.com or sales@jnpcoffee.com to place your order for this year’s harvest.