Joji B. Pantoja, Coffee for Peace, winner of Oslo Business for Peace Award

Interview with the impressive Felicitas “Joji” Bautista Pantoja, Co-Founder and CEO of Coffee for Peace and 2020 winner of Oslo Business for Peace Award. An independent Award Committee of Nobel Laureates in Peace and Economics has selected the three outstanding leaders to receive the Award this year.  Joji B. Pantoja provided sustainable livelihoods for indigenous and migrant groups in rural areas, enabling over 880 farmers to escape poverty and build their coffee production capacity.

What is your own background briefly?

I love food, I love art, and I love people. I am a graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management by degree, but my passion for helping people to get to enjoy life, magnetized me to marry someone who wants to serve God and his people.

When I was 9 years old, I had already considered myself being a missionary or a nun, to serve God.

But being married to a man of God, exposed me more to the poor and marginalized people in the Philippines. My husband and I worked in the red light district of Luzon, where we meet with women sex workers after the night clubs they are working are closed. We listened to their stories. Through this we opened up a small eatery, called “Sisters of Mary Magdalene” Cafeteria. It was open from 2AM to 6AM just to serve hot soup while we listened to their stories and their pains.

So I believe that I am called to do something for the world, even at a young age.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Yes, I guess so. I believe in serendipity. I believe that everything that you experience in life as you journey is contributing to your purpose in life. The funny thing is that I am not a farmer. I am a city girl. But my love for people and my desire and passion to help them pushes me to learn things that are foreign to me. That is how I got into Coffee for Peace, Inc. as a business for profit, with a social mission of promoting the culture of peace.

It was a big challenge to make people understand peace. in a context where hunger is present, no clean water, no permanent shelter, and no future to look forward to, because of constant conflict or war.

In one of our field work, we decided to serve coffee because we ran out of strategies to make them stop fighting. This inspired me. Coffee is calling me and it floated as an idea to make coffee as an iconic product for peace! When there is coffee served, there is dialogue, and when there is dialogue, there is no time to kill each other, but just talking. Then, Coffee for Peace was bo

How was the last 12 months? What were your big wins – well done on winning this award, how will / does it help you?

The last 12 months presented a new set of challenges. We had the pandemic of COVID 19, personal distancing, hand -washing , lock down and travel permit. We closed our coffee shop. We asked assistance from the government to help us survive the economic repercussion of the pandemic. Farmers have produced that they cannot bring to the market due to lock-down. The normal link of socialization and commerce has been changed. How do we help the farmers? How do we bring goods to the consumers, how do we transport them.

Our team saw the need of strengthening our eCommerce. We have our own website and a payment platform that are not well utilized. We do not have a clear marketing strategy. We lack finances. But our will to continue on is very strong. We have to change and be digitally literate. The farmers have to adapt also to this new normal.

Because of lock-down, several women in our community re-discover their gifts and were able to experiment in starting their own on-line business. We have started looking on to have an FDA certification for our roasting and post harvest facility for coffee. We have to upgrade our system to be digitally ready.

I believe that this award will give us exposure on what we do, in a small microcosm part of this world. This brings us honor to be recognized as Business for Peace, honoree.

What would you have done differently?

Nothing. Only that I should have started this when I was a bit younger.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now / how are you managing during these corona times?

Here are some videos made by UNDP, ADB, and UN IOM:

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

Coffee for Peace, Inc. (CFP) was established on April 15, 2008 in Davao City. The idea began in 2006 when the founders helped to facilitate an informal conflict mediation between certain Migrant and Bangsamoro farming communities.

https://www.coffeeforpeace.com/

Who and where do you get inspiration from?

More about Felicitas “Joji” Bautista Pantoja, Co-Founder of Coffee for Peace (Philippines)

Pantoja has dedicated her career to building peace in conflict zones and improving the lives of marginalized groups through economic stability. Based in the Philippines, Coffee for Peace uses coffee production as a tool to address the economic, environmental and peace issues prevalent in conflict-affected communities. Today, Coffee for Peace provides sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous and migrant groups in rural areas, enabling over 880 farmers to escape poverty and build their coffee production capacity. The company’s focus is on sustainable agriculture, peace and reconciliation between religious groups, environmental protection and entrepreneurship.

“This recognition brings hope. It affirms the dreams and aspirations of our small farming partners, micro-enterprise partners, impact investors, and employees that there are respectable people in the business world who believe in and serve as ‘cheerleaders’ for us who struggle for economic justice. This recognition affirms that inclusive development can be a reality through social enterprise,” says Pantoja.

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