A growing number of coffee roasters are realizing that if they invest in the farmers growing their beans, the payoffs for all are savory. Stumptown Coffee Roasters, based in Portland, Oregon, is one roaster leading the way when it comes to reinvesting in coffee suppliers around the globe. Its Direct Trade program ensures long-term relationships are cultivated face-to-face between the company’s owners and the farmers in the field.

Karaba Cooperative in Rwanda is at an altitude of 5000 – 6500 feet.

It was during a trip to Rwanda that Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee Roasters learned that the coffee farmers at the Karaba Cooperative needed a sustainable means of transporting heavy bags of coffee beans.

That’s how Bikes to Rwanda was born. Four years later, the nonprofit organization—with the help of countless partners and donations—has deployed numerous “Coffee Bikes,” to the Karaba Cooperative.

The Coffee Bike, designed and developed by Project Rwanda with the help of Tom Ritchey and Ritchey Logic, has many unique characteristics, but perhaps most impressive is that they can support loads of up to 50 kilograms, have easy gearing, and are “remarkably light given how robust the bikes,” according to Bikes to Rwanda executive director Brian Gilmore.

The Coffee Bike can hold up to 50 kilograms and serves multiple purposes in "off-word" hours.

The best coffee is grown at elevation, he notes, where—even if the farmers could afford them—the roads are not suitable for most cars. This is a place where bikes are more practical than cars in almost every way.

Like many other successful bike donation programs, Bikes to Rwanda, has been able to expand because of the many used bicycle tools and parts that have been donated to support the bike shops in Rwanda.

“There are so many specific parts on bikes that the tools a resident of rural Rwandan villages would have access to, just simply wouldn’t cut it when it came to being able to reliably repair the coffee bikes,” Gilmore says.