November (Web-only) 2003

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This article was originally posted October 5, 1998

Sandy-haired Cuco, 2, lives on the streets of Alejuelita, a lurid, decaying area west of Costa Rica's capital, San José, where crack addicts and street gangs roam and rob. Cuco's mother peddles drugs and sex in the neighborhood, while Cuco and his five siblings are left on their own to survive.

Until six months ago, Cuco's one daily meal came from a friendly neighbor. Then a 4-year-old friend brought him to Hogar Zoe (House of Life), a Christian drug rehabilitation center that, as best it can on scarce resources, also ministers to needy children.

Two years ago, Chris Dearnley, pastor of the Vineyard Church of Escazœ, near San José, asked Zoe's director, Carlos Córdoba, how Dearnley's church could support the program. Córdoba responded simply, "Help us reach the children."

Hogar Zoe serves meals to neighborhood youth every other day, so the Vineyard of Escazœ took charge of the kitchen every other Saturday and added an evangelism outreach. But soon Dearnley came to understand what Córdoba already recognized: It would take more than beans and rice to keep these children from perishing on the streets of San José. Dearnley wrestled with the problem of how to assure a steady stream of funds for Zoe so it could expand programs to have greater impact on young lives.

Dearnley, whose background includes a Harvard mba, started thinking about coffee. He recalls visiting university friends in California in July 1997: "We were sitting around discussing our financial need and situation, and I said, 'Hey, I brought you some coffee from Costa Rica.' " At that moment, he envisioned a coffee export operation, with the profits financing social outreach. "We looked at each other and ...