Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

Mies van der Roast
unveiled at Global Grounds

 

By Karl Rybaltowski
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Walking around campus, it’s easy to see the
physical impact some lPROs have had on the
surroundings Whether it’s the Green Line tube
above the MTCC or the statue displaying steel
structural connections outside the Engineer7
ing 1 building, some IPRO groups have made
a lasting mark on HT Now IPRO 333 (Build7
ing Sustainable Communities through Coffee),
in conjunction with Crop to Cup and Global
Grounds, has made its own contribution to
this tradition With Mies van der Roast, an ex7
clusive coffee blend from Crop to Cup, IPRO
333 will do much more than bring more varied
coffee options to UT 7 they’re helping fund fu7
ture work for the IPRO and the Ugandan farm7
ers it works with

The IPRO team has been busy 7 they’re
fresh off of a trip to the village of Gibuzaale
in southwestern Uganda, undertaken to sur7
vey the site of a proposed community coffee
storage facility (called a banda) that will be
built using locally available materials so as to
minimize the cost while ensuring quality The
team will be returning to Uganda in June to
help with the actual construction process, and
that’s part of the reason they came out in force
on Thursday afternoon, unveiling a new coffee
blend called Mies van der Roasts

The coffee is more than just a new option at
Global Grounds 7 it’s also the culmination of
the core philosophy of Crop to Cup, the sp0n7
sor of IPRO 333 “We import coffee, but our

fundamental belief is that people respond well
to humanity; with the coffee we really drive
that home," says Jakob Elster, c07f0under of
Crop to Cup and one of the lPRO’s advisorsl
“On each of our bags, we put the origin ofthe
coffee 7 there’s a map of the region it comes
from, some background on the farmer, and all
the other aspects that go into the coffee 7 even
how many tattoos they have" The complexities
involved in organizing not just the distribution
of the coffee at UT, but also the construction
project in Gibuzaale, seemed a natural fit for
the IPRO program, and Elster was quick to
take advantage “[The project] became much
more interdisciplinary and cross7cultural 7
certainly, dealing with all the issues has been
less straightforward than it initially seemedl
The lPRO’s given us all that depth thanks to
the students’ work"

Arranging the sale of Mies van der Roast
at Global Grounds proved to be a formidable
task llT has agreements and contracts with
Sodexo, Global Grounds, and a number of
vendors, and negotiating these in a manner
that gave Crop to Cup the opportunity to sell a
coffee blend without upsetting existing agree7
ments required a great deal of time and effort
Asked about the groundwork that culminated
in this unveiling, Elster said “It took a lot of
time just to get enough interest from everyone,
and have that interest culminate and get c0m7
municated between the different actors You
can imagine it was a pretty complex situation"
He acknowledged that Jennifer Keplinger, Di7
rector of Academic Services, was instrumental

in moving the process along, including facili7
tating much of the communication between all
involved “She has been an amazing advocate
in making sure that the meetings happened
and the people had all the facts"

Every bag of coffee bought provides direct
support to the Ugandan farmers whose prod7
uct students enjoy 7 the coffee is bought from
the farmers directly to ensure this In addition,
part ofthe proceeds will benefit the IPRO di7
rectly in preparing for a return trip to Uganda
when they’ll be helping make the coffee banda
a reality for the people of Gibuzaalel In short,
every purchase not only forges a bond between
consumer and producer by proudly displaying
where (and who) it came from; it also helps
further the cause of one of the more ambitious
and far7reaching lPROs in the entire program

 

Mies van der Roast is available at Global
Grounds. The cofi‘ee blend is brewed fresh at
Global Grounds. For those who wish to make it
at home, the cofi‘ee can be purchased milled in
two sizes, priced at $9 or $19. For every pound
of cofi‘ee sold, IPRO 333 receives $2 toward the
travel costsfor their trip. In addition, thefarm7
ers who supply the cofi‘ee receive a 20%premium
on all cofi‘ee Crop to Cup purchases, as well as
receiving 10% ofallprofits madefromfinal cof7
fee sales in addition to other reinvestment initia7
tives by the company

 

[Photos by Jean-Emmanuel Guebey]

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