Project Origin: making a difference one cup at a time

Posted on 3 September, 2014

For most people, a cup of coffee is nothing more than a caffeine hit in their daily routine. But for Sasa Sestic, it’s a “shared experience” which has the ability to bring people together and, thanks to the Canberra-based barista himself, can help disadvantaged people across the world.

Three years ago Sasa and his business ONA Coffee founded Project Origin—a green bean sourcing program which works directly with coffee farmers in underprivileged countries, ensuring they have safe working conditions and are paid 20 per cent higher than fair trade prices for their product.

The project is also designed to strengthen relationships between roaster and producer, and train farmers to grow the best beans possible.

So far Sasa has established relationships with farmers from eight countries, including Brazil, Panama, India, Ethiopia and Costa Rica – and is currently in Colombia (above). He estimates his overseas travel to be “about 50 times” in the last three years as part of the project.

According to Sasa, the idea for Project Origin arose during his first visit to a coffee farm in India in 2011.

“The people who were living on the farm and picking coffee were working so hard and producing amazing products, but were hardly breaking even,” he says.

“There were at times 15 families living on the farm and they didn’t even have electricity or water – their living standards were very unacceptable.  I was going to fields and seeing mothers picking coffee with month old babies and their kids were getting bitten by snakes.”

Sasa began to work closely with the farmers, teaching them how to pick better quality coffee which in turn led to them being able to sell for higher prices. Sasa then purchases the coffee beans from the farmers to be sold by businesses around Australia as well as his own company, ONA Coffee—which has specialty stores in Canberra and supplies to around 70 businesses in the ACT region.

“Because we are dealing direct with the farmer, it means our premium prices are received by the people who deserve it without value adding,” Sasa says.

“Every time you are ordering an ONA coffee, you are helping the project.”

Sasa says the project has made “amazing” progress since its small beginnings.

“Since my first trip to India, I’ve helped organise child care facilities, paying one or two of the ladies to look after these kids while the mothers pick, and we’ve also organised for the people who live at the farm to have doctors come over and give them regular checkups, and if there’s a problem we sponsor people to be looked after if needed.”

Cafes around Canberra have helped to support Project Origin by holding regular fundraisers, including Espresso Room (which also stocks ONA coffee) and The Cupping Room. So far the businesses have raised around $25,000.

Sasa says he and Espresso Room Director Michael Rose are planning to hold another fundraiser before Christmas and hopes to make more Canberrans aware of the fantastic cause.

“We often take the product of coffee for granted, forgetting that on the other side of the world, people are living and working in far less favourable conditions to help make it [coffee], barely making a living,” he says.

“That is why as I leave each country, I realise that for me it has always been about so much more than a cup of coffee.”

To keep updated with events, visit Project Origin or to make a donation to Project Origin, email Sasa at sasa@onacoffee.com.au.