*Originally published in Worcester Magazine on Aug 30, 2012
In a small storefront on High Street in Clinton sits Coffeelands World Gifts Café. More than just a coffee shop or gift store, World Gifts Café brings global initiatives down to a local level with fair and direct trade coffees, teas, foods and crafts from around the world. Its unique approach to business lies in the hands of the Polus Center for Social and Economic Development, a nonprofit organization in Clinton that designs and executes community-based programs across the country and in many parts of the world. Since its founding in 1979, the Polus Center has continued to create opportunities for people with disabilities to become respected and contributing members within their communities.
The Coffeelands World Gifts Café opened December 2011 and was born out of the Coffeelands Trust, one of the many projects that have been implemented by the Polus Center. The Coffeelands Trust provides support directly to people who have been impacted by the remnants of war in coffee-growing regions across the world. Coffeelands World Gifts Café also supports the families of these coffee growing regions by providing a market for their unique, handcrafted items in the café, with proceeds going directly back to these families as an alternative source of income. The funds that are raised through this initiative help pay for business grants, training, and the rehabilitation for victims of landmines. Locally, many of the proceeds from the café support people with disabilities that are living right here in Massachusetts.
Café Manager Michelle Miller explains that sometimes the connection between coffee and handmade gifts is not always an easy one to see, but that the community has been supportive of its mission since the opening. “There are a lot of great gift shops along this street; there is not one that combines gifts with coffee, and there isn’t another specialty coffee shop around. A lot of people have been relieved to have a place where they can come and have a meeting, they can have a different atmosphere, and where they can feel they are contributing to their community and to a broader goal.”
Worcester resident and Clinton native Colleen Fitzgerald has visited the café many times since its opening and makes certain to stop in whenever she is in the area. “I believe that it is an excellent way to support a great cause. Locally, selling fair trade merchandise and employing special needs adults gives the community a face to a population they wouldn’t typically get the chance to interact with,” says Fitzgerald. “It allows a small community to gain knowledge and experience on a face-to-face level and literally confront the issue with each visit. Globally, it shows that individuals are invested in these issues and are making strides to effect what is in their power.”
Selected items sold in the café also come from local artisans from Clinton and surrounding Worcester County. “My goal is to know the faces behind every product that I sell,” explains Miller. In an example of the direct trade that they participate in, Theresa Kane, who is the chief operating officer of the Polus Center, explains some of the lengths gone to in order to bring back wares that they can certify as directly traded. “I went for 18 hours to the Amazon Jungle and met with the Apus, the chiefs, and had them hand me some of the necklaces that are in the café,” she points out. Both Kane and Miller are proud that they have had the opportunity to be personally involved with many of the items that come into the café, and that they can vouch for the conditions under which these products were produced and contest to the fact that they are environmentally sustainable.
The café features fresh roasted coffee from Dean’s Beans, an organic and fair-trade coffee company out of Orange, Mass. Fresh lunches are prepared daily and regional musical acts perform on Thursday nights from 7 to 8:30 p.m. A good portion of the café’s directly traded products have come from many of the coffee-growing regions in South America and Africa, and some of the one-of-a-kind crafts sold include woodcarvings, purses, wallets, jewelry and scarves, as well as many other distinctive home décor items.
Visit the café at 50 High St., Clinton. For more information on the Polus Center and the World Gifts Café, visit poluscenter.org.