
Our Blog
Pomo Possibilities
Right Now We Are Seeing History in the Making.
In the confluence of purpose and action, our community is coming together for Tribal sovereignty and reconciliation through the Pomo Land Back movement. This is an opportunity to learn about and support the Northern Pomo People of Mendocino County. This is an opportunity to regain alignment with nature, with our community, and the indigenous people of these lands.
The parallels between the Indigenous Forest and the Indigenous People are striking. Much like the ancestral old growth Redwoods, only a fraction of the original Pomo people are still alive. Populations of Pomo tribes numbered between 13,000 - 20,000 in the early 1800s. By the 2000 census, only 5,092 Pomo were left. Likewise, only 4% of the original Redwood Forests exist, while the other 96% have been logged to extinction.
Mendocino County is home to 10 surviving Pomo tribes. All have experienced countless forms of discrimination, forced assimilation, relocation, and legal termination. It is time for the cycle to pivot. We can do this together through regeneration, cooperation, and collaboration.
What we do to the forest, we do to the people
The Pomo Tribal Leadership has identified Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) as the focus of the Pomo Land Back movement and has gathered the support of 50 California tribes across the State. This has never been achieved before. Tribal Chairman Michael Hunter is ready to lead the way for healing and has asked Governor Newsom for co-management of these forests. With the help of a strong local coalition of environmental organizations, the logging has been stopped for now.
"Our responsibility is to past... present... and future generations of all life."
The way forward is to rematriate the forest and move into Indigenous stewardship. Following the lead of matriarch Priscilla Hunter, Tribal Chairman Michael Hunter is gathering the community together to bring healing and restore the biodiversity to our forests and rivers.
The 50,000 acres of Jackson State Demonstration Forests (JDSF) has been managed by Cal Fire since 1949. It is full of ancestral sacred sites, and is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the State. With the co-management plan the tribes will guide the State agencies to implement their place based knowledge and create a real demonstration forest for future generations. This irreplaceable knowledge is the expertise that has been cultivated over millennia by the tribes who have inhabited these forests.
Indigenous experts hold the wisdom of interdependence with our surroundings and how to live with the cycles of growth that will support all life. This traditional ecology knowledge (TEK) system was brutally interrupted at the time of colonization. The forest is suffering the loss of these practices and experiencing the harsh consequence of a dysfunctional system that breeds greed and exploitation.
I invite you to be a good steward of the Jackson State Demonstration Forest and learn about the Pomo Land Back movement. Together we create a new era of justice for our First Nations People of Mendocino. With Pomo leadership, Cal Fire has an opportunity to truly demonstrate what a healthy forest and healthy ecosystem is for generations to come. This is a win, win, for people, policy, and the planet. Native-led co-management of JDSF is the strongest medicine for our forests and community as a whole. I urge you to learn how you can support the stewards of this amazing forest.
To join the movement and learn more go to www.pomolandback.com.
Further Resources:
Pomo History - Encyclopedia.com
The Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council
Redwood Forest Returned to Tribes
Halt Logging Northern California
The Bee Bold Alliance is a project of Thanksgiving Coffee that works to find sustainable solutions for our future generations by restoring biodiversity and supporting our local food systems. In collaboration with Tribal Chairman Michael Hunter and his family, we are building a resilient community for all life. www.beeboldalliance.com
Give 20% to the Bee Bold Alliance when you buy the Bee Bold Cause Coffee in Dark and Medium, or Decaf. We have raised over $21,000 to support biodiversity and local food security to date.
Recommended Reading
Back to the Blog-
End The Embargo Coffee
Entering the 25th year of End The Embargo Coffee, we find the embargo on Cuba by our government still in place. However, it is now easy to obtain a Visa to travel to Cuba on your own or via the many Social Justice Non profits and Churches that lead mission driven or curated special interest trips to the island.
Back in 1998 we teamed up with Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based nonprofit which was then, a leading proponent in favor of ending the US Cuba hostilities. Jonah Katzeff, now CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee, traveled to Cuba with Global Exchange in the late 90’s. I had complex motives for creating End the Embargo Coffee 25 years ago. My motives were not purely about Social Justice. I was a cigar judge at the time for Cigar Aficionado magazine, and I understood that the quality of Cuban cigars was based on its soil and climate as much as on the human skills that transformed fresh picked tobacco leaf and aged it, blended it, and rolled it into cigars for export. Coffee grown in Cuba I believed, would be as magnificent as their tobacco that were made into their fantastic cigars. I wanted that coffee! However, it was no secret that Thanksgiving Coffee was a supporter of the Nicaraguan revolution, and that I was a Sandinista at heart. I made many visits to Nicaragua in 1985, and in 1986 negotiated a contract to purchase 75,000 pounds of coffee for delivery to the SF/Oakland Bay Area).
America was at war with Nicaragua using unhappy Nicaraguans as it's Mercenaries. Although it was a peoples revolution, almost immediately after the Nicaraguan newspapers reported my contract, President Reagan declared an Embargo on Nicaraguan imports which included my 75,000 pounds. I was caught in the middle of US Foreign Policy. What I did is another story which solidified me as the Premier Craft Coffee Radical in America. Spoiler alert, I challenged the Reagan embargo and broke the embargo. I learned allot from that experience and fifteen years later, it informed my decision to create End The Embargo Coffee.
Coffee grown in Cuba I believed, would be as magnificent as their tobacco...
I was inspired by my experiences in Nicaragua. I wanted to do my part for the coffee farmers, and agricultural workers in Cuba. I wanted to put my stake in the ground to be the first to bring Cuban coffee to the United States. When we created the packaging for in the embargo coffee the Pope had just visited Cuba. Daniel Ortega, President and one of the nine commandants of the Nicaraguan revolutionary army (FSLN) that defeated the Samosa Dictatorship in 1979, came to meet the Pope at the airport. The Pope was not a happy Pope in the moment, and pointed and accusatory finger at the President of Nicaragua as he reached to kiss the popes ring. A photo of that moment became a poster, which became an International memorial to the Revolution. I saw one in Rwanda in the home of a coffee farmer twenty years later. I couldn’t help myself. I used it for the dark roast graphic. Che was chosen for the light roast.
It should be noted that the artist who created that likeness of Che was interviewed for an article in Business Week Magazine. He commented on the use of the image, disapproving of Seagram’s use of the image to sell vodka, but approved Thanksgiving Coffee’s use as the image representing coffee for End the Embargo. The week that publication hit the newsstands we sold 5,000 12 oz. packages.
For many years afterwards, I received quite a number of nasty letters and phone threats from Cuban immigrants living in Miami, who had, in their words, escaped Cuba to find freedom in America. They weren’t poor Cubans, but the wealthy, who had prospered as part of the pre revolution economy. I carried on an interesting dialogue with the detractors of our of our anti-embargo activism. As the Cuban political situation mellowed over time, the threats and nasty accusations slowed to a trickle.
Today, after quarter century of Che, and the Pope, being on grocery shelves, and in our online web store, we begin the process of ending our relationship with this revolutionary product line. Although the issue is still important, we just don’t have the staff to promote this product the way it needs to be promoted to achieve its educational aims. We have not changed our politics of inclusion and social justice, nor have we changed our opinion about whether or not the embargo should stand or fall. We believe that the Cuban embargo is an inappropriate way to achieve peace between nations. This embargo, as all embargoes do, impacts the poorest of the Cuban citizens. It does not impact wealthy Cubans in Cuba. Che and the Pope now, just sit patiently on store shelves looking out quietly as people pass by and choose other coffees that have a more current pressing social, environmental, and economic justice issues.
After a quarter century the time to retire these iconic images is for us, now. If you wish to continue to support the Cuban Cuban people and wish to see the embargo on Cuban products ended, here is the original organization that we supported which you can also support by contributing your energy and and/or financial support. They do the work that we can no longer do.
Global Exchange - Normalize Relations with Cuba
Let’s say goodbye to End the Embargo Coffee until such time when Thanksgiving Coffee Company has the employee power to give this product is due. Cuban coffee never got to the United States but Thanksgiving’s Embargo Coffee package recently got to Cuba. Photographs below show Susan Savage of the Mendocino Coast Community Healthcare District delivering Che to one of her friends in Cuba in late January 2023
End of Story
Paul Katzeff, is the Co-Founder, Roast Master Emeritis and former CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee Company.
You will find all the same great flavor and taste of End the Embargo in our Noyo Harbor French
Our CausesGoodbye - End The Embargo
read more -
World Female Ranger Week
The first ever World Female Ranger Award winner Caren Yegon (Chags Photography)
Original Post from Mara Elephant Project by Claire Bolles
Protecting Elephants and Their Habitats Across the Greater Mara Ecosystem
It is World Female Ranger Week, a time set aside to highlight the important conservation work undertaken by women on the frontline. The first ever World Female Ranger Award winner Caren Yegon just completed a month-long LEAD Ranger training at the Wildlife Works facility in Rukinga, Kenya. (Our cause coffee partner) The Mara Elephant Project / Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Mau De-Snaring Unit lead ranger was joined by 13 rangers, which included nine women, from other conservation organizations for the Bush School Instructor course facilitated by both LEAD Ranger and special guest instructors.
Caren will take the skills she learned and bring them back to educate other MEP rangers. Skills like making safe drinking water in the field, using various signals to communicate when you’re lost or need to be discreet, making shelter and fire with basic supplies, navigating in the field without technology and more.
As we join other conservation organizations celebrating World Female Ranger Week, we continue our commitment to nurture a diverse and inclusive workforce thanks to your support.
A special thanks to LEAD Ranger for their commitment to nature’s first responders and to How Many Elephants for supporting World Female Ranger Week to shine a light on women like Caren.
You can send more Mara Elephant Project rangers like Caren for training in 2023, when you purchase Protect Our Elephants coffee. Support the MEP conservation heroes.
Lavender Grace is the Sustainable Ecology Consultant for Thanksgiving Coffee Company .
Our CausesCelebrate Women in Conservation
read more -
Coffee From Us ~ To You
Thanksgiving Coffee's Sales and Delivery Crew are full of knowledge handed down by our founders, (Joan and Paul Katzeff), and the valuable team their son, Jonah Katzeff CEO, has assembled to serve our community. The coffee they deliver and the coffee support they give you are built on the unique relationship with the family farms and small co-operatives that Thanksgiving has cultivated with generations of coffee farmers. This kind of connection is earned through hard work and dedication, and that is exactly what our sales and delivery team are full of. Let me introduce them to you. See if you can notice a theme. (Hint, positive co-workers).
Don Arnold - Direct Delivery Coordinator
Don has worked at Thanksgiving Coffee since 2000, longer than anyone, not naming Paul or Joan. That means 22 years and still going. He likes that there are no layoffs, unlike his old job at the local Saw Mill. He loves the free coffee every employee gets, and all the great co-workers. When he is not at work he likes to watch and play different sports, and video games, and hang out with his wife.
His favorite music to listen to is Rock and Rap. Don's favorite coffee is Ethiopia Natural and he likes to drink his coffee with a scoop of hot chocolate.
Shane Powers - Online Sales Administration
Shane started working with Thanksgiving Coffee in 2021. He loves being part of an organization that values the community, its employees and customers, and their impact on nature and humanity. He also loves the rich history of Thanksgiving Coffee's active shaping of the specialty coffee industry. When he is not at work Shane likes to spend a lot of time in nature and wading through the shallow tidal zones of the Mendocino Coast.
He has a wide range of musical likes, from 70's and 80's. He especially loves great music that defies category (Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead/Thom Yorke, Moses Sumney).
Shane has really been loving the mellow complexity of the Costa Rica – Las Lajas coffee lately. He has tried just about every method of brewing, but at home, he always preferres a simple pour-over.
Brian Potter - Direct Delivery
Brian has been working at Thanksgiving Coffee since 2020. He likes working here because of his co-workers, his schedule, and he likes to drive! When he is not at work Brian likes to hunt, fish and be outdoors, and anything that is fun. His favorite music to listen to is Rock and Country.
Brian's favorite coffee is the Upsetter. He likes to brew it in a coffee maker and takes it black most of the time.
Kelsey Price - Sales Representative
Kelsey began working with Thanksgiving in at the beginning of 2022. She likes the positive environment, and how everyone she works with is authentic, kind and caring. When she is not at work she likes to spend time at the river, in the forest, camping, fishing, laughing with friends, family game nights, going for long walks with her dog, thrifting, and enjoying life.
Kelsey likes everything when it comes to music! As for her favorite coffee, she says that "The Upsetter and Kenya Peaberry are tied for first." At home she uses a French Press or makes cold brew in a big mason jar. She goes back and forth between black or some ½ & ½.
Nathan Nies - Delivery
Nathan has been working with Thanksgiving Coffee for 10 years, however he was a serving account at The Bus Stop before that. If you add both of those together you get a grand total of 20 yrs. He likes working here because of the Mission. He says that there are few other companies that have the goals, as well as the bonafides in the industry, to say they have made the kind of positive impact on the culture, farmers and environment as Thanksgiving Coffee Company has.
When not at work he enjoys reading, roleplaying games, woodworking and the odd bit of trouble. His feels you can't go wrong with some classic psychedelic rock, electro-swing or celtic fiddles when listening to music. Nathan is a fan of our Costa Rica medium roast coffee, which he likes to brew in a pour over and drink it black.
Coffee is our medium, community resilience is our passion, and the health and happiness of our farmers is our goal.
Our CommunitySales and Delivery of Thanksgiving Coffee
read more -
Our team that gets the coffee to you
The arms and legs of the company are found in our Production Team as they move smoothly between the freshly roasted beans, to the final customer packages. This zone is buzzing with movement from the fresh batch of beans rushing down the gravity feed shoot to a new coffee barrel. The Production crew mixes the different roasts and portions carefully to produce the great flavorful blends. When needed, they take the whole beans and grind them to the right specifications to be brewed to their highest potential. The crew then takes all this tasty roasted coffee, box it up, and ship it out to you, our customers. Here they are.
Palmer Evans – Production Supervisor
Palmer Evans has been with Thanksgiving Coffee Company for seven years. He enjoys the people he works with and likes what the company stands for. When he is not at work he does what his kids want to do… Play video games, spend time with family and their dogs.
Palmer enjoys rock music, but he can listen to just about everything except bag pipes…. “Never could get into those”, he says. His favorite Coffee is Kenya Peaberry, however, he does like mixing Kenya Peaberry and the Ethiopian Gedeb together 50/50. “Its SUPER fruity”. He likes to brew his coffee using a French Press.
Celia Garrido - Shipping
Celia Garrido has worked with the company for over 21 years. This position has been a huge part of her life. She has worked here for so long that she watched her kids grow up and the company grow at the same time. It has been a fun and interesting job in her eyes. She likes to be here because she finds the environment positive, interesting, and she likes making our customers happy.
When Celia is not working, she likes to be home and care for her grandbaby, as nothing else compares to her Christina. She likes to relax, doesn’t really like to cook too much anymore, mostly it is all about her grandchild.
Her favorite music is romance and Cumbia, and her favorite bands are Panco Barraza and Julio Jaramillo.
Celia’s favorite coffee is Byron’s wash from Nicaragua and her second favorite is the FairTrade Beaujolais blend. She brews it in a drip coffee maker at home and likes to add a chocolate creamer or just milk.
(No Photo Requested)
Sonia Sosa - Production
Sonia Sosa has been with the company for two years. She likes the location of the company in town and appreciates the kind people that she works with.
When Sonia is not working, she likes to take walks, to rest, and watch TV. Her favorite music is Mexican Reggaeton. She also likes Karol G - Provenza. Sonia’s favorite coffee is Mocha Java and brews it on a drip coffee maker. She takes her coffee with milk.
Xavion Bishop – Production
Xavion Bishop has worked with Thanksgiving Coffee Company for about a year and counting. He says that the production team relies heavily on teamwork. If you need any form of assistance, there will be someone to give you a helping hand, no matter what. When he is not working here, he enjoys dabbling in 2-D art.
Xavion’s favorite music is Samba. His favorite coffee is Kenya Peaberry. He was not a coffee drinker before working here so he is still relatively new to the coffee world. Due to this lack of knowledge, he usually takes his coffee black to learn the intended flavor of the beans.
Here are the coffees our production crew like, want to try one?
Our CommunityProduction Crew of Thanksgiving Coffee Company
read more -
What Is In Your Cup?
When you drink your coffee, you might want to know what goes into your cup, and if it is Thanksgiving Coffee, you might want to know why we became a certified B Corp. So let me tell you a little story about our coffee company and why we went through this rigorous process of certification.
When Thanksgiving Coffee Company began (now over 50 years ago) it was based on the co-owner Paul Katzeff's history as a social worker. The function of the coffee became a vehicle for social, environmental and economic justice in the world. In the 80's, during Paul's first momentus visit to the coffee farms of the war-torn country of Nicaragua, he created our motto "Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup". This has been the intention behind every aspect of Thanksgiving Coffee's work. (If you ever get a chance, ask Paul to tell you the story of this first visit, it is quite something!) In the meantime you can read more on the revolution at Liberation News.
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages the world over. It is an economic mainstay for dozens of countries and produced by 25 million small share holders. As a pioneer Thanksgiving Coffee Company has gone to these coffee-growing origins around the world to meet with the farmers, to support their organic farming cooperatives, to pay a living wage for the beans, and provide meaningful employment along the entire supply chain to help innovate and create sustainable ecology for over 5 decades.
Can you taste the difference? Will you be the difference?
When a business becomes a Certified B Corporation it means that they have undergone an extensive process to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose... This was a perfect community for Thanksgiving Coffee to join, with thousands of conscious companies in 89 countries who do real work to make our world a better place for all.
B Corp is A Network to Build Collaboration and Work Toward a More Inclusive Economy
Nicaruguan farmers who spoke out for justice were a huge turning point in our company's history. The women led farmer cooperative of Soppexcca is part of this Nicaraguan legacy and the work we do as a B Corp. When you go to drink your next cup of coffee, take a moment and ask yourself, what is in your cup, really? Is it a "Just Cup"? How does it sustain the Earth? How does it treat our life sustaining waters? Does it support the humanity of all the hard-working farmers? Can you taste the difference? Will you be the difference?
Image: Natividad Lopez Garcia, Reina Isabel Quintero, and Flor Rodriguez, founding members of SOPPEXCCA’s women’s cooperative in Nicaragua.
To try Soppexcca’s Organic and Fair Trade coffee from Nicaragua you can either purchase the Flor de Jinotega or our Bee Bold Cause Coffee in Dark and Medium, which uses their coffee as the main bean in the blend.
SustainabilityA Just Cup? Our Story As A B Corp
read more

End The Embargo Coffee
Entering the 25th year of End The Embargo Coffee, we find the embargo on Cuba by our government still in place. However, it is now easy to obtain a Visa to travel to Cuba on your own or via the many Social Justice Non profits and Churches that lead mission driven or curated special interest trips to the island.
Back in 1998 we teamed up with Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based nonprofit which was then, a leading proponent in favor of ending the US Cuba hostilities. Jonah Katzeff, now CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee, traveled to Cuba with Global Exchange in the late 90’s. I had complex motives for creating End the Embargo Coffee 25 years ago. My motives were not purely about Social Justice. I was a cigar judge at the time for Cigar Aficionado magazine, and I understood that the quality of Cuban cigars was based on its soil and climate as much as on the human skills that transformed fresh picked tobacco leaf and aged it, blended it, and rolled it into cigars for export. Coffee grown in Cuba I believed, would be as magnificent as their tobacco that were made into their fantastic cigars. I wanted that coffee! However, it was no secret that Thanksgiving Coffee was a supporter of the Nicaraguan revolution, and that I was a Sandinista at heart. I made many visits to Nicaragua in 1985, and in 1986 negotiated a contract to purchase 75,000 pounds of coffee for delivery to the SF/Oakland Bay Area).
America was at war with Nicaragua using unhappy Nicaraguans as it's Mercenaries. Although it was a peoples revolution, almost immediately after the Nicaraguan newspapers reported my contract, President Reagan declared an Embargo on Nicaraguan imports which included my 75,000 pounds. I was caught in the middle of US Foreign Policy. What I did is another story which solidified me as the Premier Craft Coffee Radical in America. Spoiler alert, I challenged the Reagan embargo and broke the embargo. I learned allot from that experience and fifteen years later, it informed my decision to create End The Embargo Coffee.
Coffee grown in Cuba I believed, would be as magnificent as their tobacco...
I was inspired by my experiences in Nicaragua. I wanted to do my part for the coffee farmers, and agricultural workers in Cuba. I wanted to put my stake in the ground to be the first to bring Cuban coffee to the United States. When we created the packaging for in the embargo coffee the Pope had just visited Cuba. Daniel Ortega, President and one of the nine commandants of the Nicaraguan revolutionary army (FSLN) that defeated the Samosa Dictatorship in 1979, came to meet the Pope at the airport. The Pope was not a happy Pope in the moment, and pointed and accusatory finger at the President of Nicaragua as he reached to kiss the popes ring. A photo of that moment became a poster, which became an International memorial to the Revolution. I saw one in Rwanda in the home of a coffee farmer twenty years later. I couldn’t help myself. I used it for the dark roast graphic. Che was chosen for the light roast.
It should be noted that the artist who created that likeness of Che was interviewed for an article in Business Week Magazine. He commented on the use of the image, disapproving of Seagram’s use of the image to sell vodka, but approved Thanksgiving Coffee’s use as the image representing coffee for End the Embargo. The week that publication hit the newsstands we sold 5,000 12 oz. packages.
For many years afterwards, I received quite a number of nasty letters and phone threats from Cuban immigrants living in Miami, who had, in their words, escaped Cuba to find freedom in America. They weren’t poor Cubans, but the wealthy, who had prospered as part of the pre revolution economy. I carried on an interesting dialogue with the detractors of our of our anti-embargo activism. As the Cuban political situation mellowed over time, the threats and nasty accusations slowed to a trickle.
Today, after quarter century of Che, and the Pope, being on grocery shelves, and in our online web store, we begin the process of ending our relationship with this revolutionary product line. Although the issue is still important, we just don’t have the staff to promote this product the way it needs to be promoted to achieve its educational aims. We have not changed our politics of inclusion and social justice, nor have we changed our opinion about whether or not the embargo should stand or fall. We believe that the Cuban embargo is an inappropriate way to achieve peace between nations. This embargo, as all embargoes do, impacts the poorest of the Cuban citizens. It does not impact wealthy Cubans in Cuba. Che and the Pope now, just sit patiently on store shelves looking out quietly as people pass by and choose other coffees that have a more current pressing social, environmental, and economic justice issues.
After a quarter century the time to retire these iconic images is for us, now. If you wish to continue to support the Cuban Cuban people and wish to see the embargo on Cuban products ended, here is the original organization that we supported which you can also support by contributing your energy and and/or financial support. They do the work that we can no longer do.
Global Exchange - Normalize Relations with Cuba
Let’s say goodbye to End the Embargo Coffee until such time when Thanksgiving Coffee Company has the employee power to give this product is due. Cuban coffee never got to the United States but Thanksgiving’s Embargo Coffee package recently got to Cuba. Photographs below show Susan Savage of the Mendocino Coast Community Healthcare District delivering Che to one of her friends in Cuba in late January 2023
End of Story
Paul Katzeff, is the Co-Founder, Roast Master Emeritis and former CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee Company.
You will find all the same great flavor and taste of End the Embargo in our Noyo Harbor French
Goodbye - End The Embargo
read more
World Female Ranger Week
The first ever World Female Ranger Award winner Caren Yegon (Chags Photography)
Original Post from Mara Elephant Project by Claire Bolles
Protecting Elephants and Their Habitats Across the Greater Mara Ecosystem
It is World Female Ranger Week, a time set aside to highlight the important conservation work undertaken by women on the frontline. The first ever World Female Ranger Award winner Caren Yegon just completed a month-long LEAD Ranger training at the Wildlife Works facility in Rukinga, Kenya. (Our cause coffee partner) The Mara Elephant Project / Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Mau De-Snaring Unit lead ranger was joined by 13 rangers, which included nine women, from other conservation organizations for the Bush School Instructor course facilitated by both LEAD Ranger and special guest instructors.
Caren will take the skills she learned and bring them back to educate other MEP rangers. Skills like making safe drinking water in the field, using various signals to communicate when you’re lost or need to be discreet, making shelter and fire with basic supplies, navigating in the field without technology and more.
As we join other conservation organizations celebrating World Female Ranger Week, we continue our commitment to nurture a diverse and inclusive workforce thanks to your support.
A special thanks to LEAD Ranger for their commitment to nature’s first responders and to How Many Elephants for supporting World Female Ranger Week to shine a light on women like Caren.
You can send more Mara Elephant Project rangers like Caren for training in 2023, when you purchase Protect Our Elephants coffee. Support the MEP conservation heroes.
Lavender Grace is the Sustainable Ecology Consultant for Thanksgiving Coffee Company .
Celebrate Women in Conservation
read more
Coffee From Us ~ To You
Thanksgiving Coffee's Sales and Delivery Crew are full of knowledge handed down by our founders, (Joan and Paul Katzeff), and the valuable team their son, Jonah Katzeff CEO, has assembled to serve our community. The coffee they deliver and the coffee support they give you are built on the unique relationship with the family farms and small co-operatives that Thanksgiving has cultivated with generations of coffee farmers. This kind of connection is earned through hard work and dedication, and that is exactly what our sales and delivery team are full of. Let me introduce them to you. See if you can notice a theme. (Hint, positive co-workers).
Don Arnold - Direct Delivery Coordinator
Don has worked at Thanksgiving Coffee since 2000, longer than anyone, not naming Paul or Joan. That means 22 years and still going. He likes that there are no layoffs, unlike his old job at the local Saw Mill. He loves the free coffee every employee gets, and all the great co-workers. When he is not at work he likes to watch and play different sports, and video games, and hang out with his wife.
His favorite music to listen to is Rock and Rap. Don's favorite coffee is Ethiopia Natural and he likes to drink his coffee with a scoop of hot chocolate.
Shane Powers - Online Sales Administration
Shane started working with Thanksgiving Coffee in 2021. He loves being part of an organization that values the community, its employees and customers, and their impact on nature and humanity. He also loves the rich history of Thanksgiving Coffee's active shaping of the specialty coffee industry. When he is not at work Shane likes to spend a lot of time in nature and wading through the shallow tidal zones of the Mendocino Coast.
He has a wide range of musical likes, from 70's and 80's. He especially loves great music that defies category (Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead/Thom Yorke, Moses Sumney).
Shane has really been loving the mellow complexity of the Costa Rica – Las Lajas coffee lately. He has tried just about every method of brewing, but at home, he always preferres a simple pour-over.
Brian Potter - Direct Delivery
Brian has been working at Thanksgiving Coffee since 2020. He likes working here because of his co-workers, his schedule, and he likes to drive! When he is not at work Brian likes to hunt, fish and be outdoors, and anything that is fun. His favorite music to listen to is Rock and Country.
Brian's favorite coffee is the Upsetter. He likes to brew it in a coffee maker and takes it black most of the time.
Kelsey Price - Sales Representative
Kelsey began working with Thanksgiving in at the beginning of 2022. She likes the positive environment, and how everyone she works with is authentic, kind and caring. When she is not at work she likes to spend time at the river, in the forest, camping, fishing, laughing with friends, family game nights, going for long walks with her dog, thrifting, and enjoying life.
Kelsey likes everything when it comes to music! As for her favorite coffee, she says that "The Upsetter and Kenya Peaberry are tied for first." At home she uses a French Press or makes cold brew in a big mason jar. She goes back and forth between black or some ½ & ½.
Nathan Nies - Delivery
Nathan has been working with Thanksgiving Coffee for 10 years, however he was a serving account at The Bus Stop before that. If you add both of those together you get a grand total of 20 yrs. He likes working here because of the Mission. He says that there are few other companies that have the goals, as well as the bonafides in the industry, to say they have made the kind of positive impact on the culture, farmers and environment as Thanksgiving Coffee Company has.
When not at work he enjoys reading, roleplaying games, woodworking and the odd bit of trouble. His feels you can't go wrong with some classic psychedelic rock, electro-swing or celtic fiddles when listening to music. Nathan is a fan of our Costa Rica medium roast coffee, which he likes to brew in a pour over and drink it black.
Coffee is our medium, community resilience is our passion, and the health and happiness of our farmers is our goal.
Sales and Delivery of Thanksgiving Coffee
read more
Our team that gets the coffee to you
The arms and legs of the company are found in our Production Team as they move smoothly between the freshly roasted beans, to the final customer packages. This zone is buzzing with movement from the fresh batch of beans rushing down the gravity feed shoot to a new coffee barrel. The Production crew mixes the different roasts and portions carefully to produce the great flavorful blends. When needed, they take the whole beans and grind them to the right specifications to be brewed to their highest potential. The crew then takes all this tasty roasted coffee, box it up, and ship it out to you, our customers. Here they are.
Palmer Evans – Production Supervisor
Palmer Evans has been with Thanksgiving Coffee Company for seven years. He enjoys the people he works with and likes what the company stands for. When he is not at work he does what his kids want to do… Play video games, spend time with family and their dogs.
Palmer enjoys rock music, but he can listen to just about everything except bag pipes…. “Never could get into those”, he says. His favorite Coffee is Kenya Peaberry, however, he does like mixing Kenya Peaberry and the Ethiopian Gedeb together 50/50. “Its SUPER fruity”. He likes to brew his coffee using a French Press.
Celia Garrido - Shipping
Celia Garrido has worked with the company for over 21 years. This position has been a huge part of her life. She has worked here for so long that she watched her kids grow up and the company grow at the same time. It has been a fun and interesting job in her eyes. She likes to be here because she finds the environment positive, interesting, and she likes making our customers happy.
When Celia is not working, she likes to be home and care for her grandbaby, as nothing else compares to her Christina. She likes to relax, doesn’t really like to cook too much anymore, mostly it is all about her grandchild.
Her favorite music is romance and Cumbia, and her favorite bands are Panco Barraza and Julio Jaramillo.
Celia’s favorite coffee is Byron’s wash from Nicaragua and her second favorite is the FairTrade Beaujolais blend. She brews it in a drip coffee maker at home and likes to add a chocolate creamer or just milk.
(No Photo Requested)
Sonia Sosa - Production
Sonia Sosa has been with the company for two years. She likes the location of the company in town and appreciates the kind people that she works with.
When Sonia is not working, she likes to take walks, to rest, and watch TV. Her favorite music is Mexican Reggaeton. She also likes Karol G - Provenza. Sonia’s favorite coffee is Mocha Java and brews it on a drip coffee maker. She takes her coffee with milk.
Xavion Bishop – Production
Xavion Bishop has worked with Thanksgiving Coffee Company for about a year and counting. He says that the production team relies heavily on teamwork. If you need any form of assistance, there will be someone to give you a helping hand, no matter what. When he is not working here, he enjoys dabbling in 2-D art.
Xavion’s favorite music is Samba. His favorite coffee is Kenya Peaberry. He was not a coffee drinker before working here so he is still relatively new to the coffee world. Due to this lack of knowledge, he usually takes his coffee black to learn the intended flavor of the beans.
Here are the coffees our production crew like, want to try one?
Production Crew of Thanksgiving Coffee Company
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What Is In Your Cup?
When you drink your coffee, you might want to know what goes into your cup, and if it is Thanksgiving Coffee, you might want to know why we became a certified B Corp. So let me tell you a little story about our coffee company and why we went through this rigorous process of certification.
When Thanksgiving Coffee Company began (now over 50 years ago) it was based on the co-owner Paul Katzeff's history as a social worker. The function of the coffee became a vehicle for social, environmental and economic justice in the world. In the 80's, during Paul's first momentus visit to the coffee farms of the war-torn country of Nicaragua, he created our motto "Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup". This has been the intention behind every aspect of Thanksgiving Coffee's work. (If you ever get a chance, ask Paul to tell you the story of this first visit, it is quite something!) In the meantime you can read more on the revolution at Liberation News.
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages the world over. It is an economic mainstay for dozens of countries and produced by 25 million small share holders. As a pioneer Thanksgiving Coffee Company has gone to these coffee-growing origins around the world to meet with the farmers, to support their organic farming cooperatives, to pay a living wage for the beans, and provide meaningful employment along the entire supply chain to help innovate and create sustainable ecology for over 5 decades.
Can you taste the difference? Will you be the difference?
When a business becomes a Certified B Corporation it means that they have undergone an extensive process to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose... This was a perfect community for Thanksgiving Coffee to join, with thousands of conscious companies in 89 countries who do real work to make our world a better place for all.
B Corp is A Network to Build Collaboration and Work Toward a More Inclusive Economy
Nicaruguan farmers who spoke out for justice were a huge turning point in our company's history. The women led farmer cooperative of Soppexcca is part of this Nicaraguan legacy and the work we do as a B Corp. When you go to drink your next cup of coffee, take a moment and ask yourself, what is in your cup, really? Is it a "Just Cup"? How does it sustain the Earth? How does it treat our life sustaining waters? Does it support the humanity of all the hard-working farmers? Can you taste the difference? Will you be the difference?
Image: Natividad Lopez Garcia, Reina Isabel Quintero, and Flor Rodriguez, founding members of SOPPEXCCA’s women’s cooperative in Nicaragua.
To try Soppexcca’s Organic and Fair Trade coffee from Nicaragua you can either purchase the Flor de Jinotega or our Bee Bold Cause Coffee in Dark and Medium, which uses their coffee as the main bean in the blend.