50 • Profile • C&CI May 2013
Actress/philanthropist starts coffee company after trip to origin
M
any people in the coffee industry already know about the Rwandan genocide 18 years ago, and about the way that coffee-growing has helped resurrect the economic fortunes of the country since then. Since the conflict, Rwanda has become well-known as an origin, a lot of money has been spent helping Rwandan farmers and much work has been undertaken by aid agencies and others to help the coffee sector in the small African country develop. For Mrs Hightower De Niro, however, a visit to the country prompted a very direct form of involvement with farmers in the region – she set up a company to roast and sell their coffee in the US.
Mrs Hightower De Niro is an actress, singer and philanthropist, and a board member of the New York Women’s Foundation. More recently, she has also become a member of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance, in addition to serving as a board member of the New York Fund for Public Schools and as member of Ronald Perlman’s Women’s Heart Health Advisory Council.
Entrepreneurial spirit In the past she has been honoured for
her work and dedication by the New York Women’s Foundation and the American Cancer Society of New York City. She lives in New York City with her husband, the actor Robert De Niro and their two children, and first visited Rwanda and met the country’s President, Paul Kagame, in 2012. Visiting Rwanda last spring, she was, she explained, moved in a particularly profound way. “I was touched by their ability to forgive and move on,” she told C&CI in an interview in San Francisco, during the 2013 National Coffee Association convention. “It is an outstanding example of how people under extraordinary circumstances can triumph over adversity.”
Relying on the same entrepreneurial spirit that has guided Rwanda, Mrs Hightower De Niro set her sights on coffee, one of the country’s primary industries and largest exports. “In Rwanda, coffee is a symbol
Having visited Rwanda and been inspired by the
country’s people, philanthropist Grace Hightower De Niro has formed her own company to sell Rwandan coffee
All of Coffee of Grace’s coffee is grown by smallholders and co-operatives
Mrs Hightower De Niro visits a washing station in Rwanda with Tom Mitchell from Strategic Coffee Concepts
of hope,” she said. “It is what draws Rwandans together, and empowers them on their journey to build a better future for themselves, their families and their country.” Having returned to the US, Mrs Hightower De Niro worked with coffee consultants Tom Mitchell and Patty Johansen-Mitchell, whose company, Strategic Coffee Concepts, specialises in promoting specialty coffee, in order to bring life to her vision, and a new brand, Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda, to fruition. Together, they helped Mrs Hightower De Niro select the best coffees and partners in the US and Rwanda. Rather than work with estate-grown coffees, Mrs Hightower De Niro’s company has elected to buy coffee grown by smallholder farmers who, on average, have around half an acre of land and grow and harvest their own produce, before delivering it to a washing station for processing, and from co-operatives. Coffee of Grace works directly with the washing stations to acquire the best quality coffee and pays a premium for the coffee. It imports the coffee into the US where it is roasted.
“While in Rwanda, I met a woman with her own washing station. I learned of her work to inspire other Rwandan women by helping them form community co-operatives to share resources and ultimately improve their lives,” Mrs Hightower De Niro told C&CI.
“This single woman has literally generated a movement and empowered others to open their minds to a more independent future,” she explained. “In sitting down and speaking with Rwandans I came to realize that it is far more rewarding to work your land with your hands than to accept hand-outs.”
Mrs Hightower De Niro said she had been especially inspired by the extraordinary determination shown by many of the women coffee farmers that she met, prompting her to buy coffee from one particularly well-known co-op in which women play a major role, the Buf Co- operative. Buf Co-op, which was founded in 2000, is already famous in the specialty coffee industry, as is the story of Epiphanie Muhirwa, who has become an emblem of Rwandan economic recovery and the coffee industry there. The co-op was one of a number of receive support from the Rwandan Development Bank and USAID’s well-known PEARL project.
Since the company started buying coffee in the country, said Mrs Hightower De Niro, she had quickly seen the benefits that have flowed from it, with lives being improved and schools being built from the proceeds. The coffee is being made available initially through Whole Foods Markets. C&CI
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