Help track our industry’s life-saving impact.

By Spencer Turer, Coffee Enterprises

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The coffee industry has recognized programs which support social responsibility, environmental stewardship, health issues, gender initiatives, women coffee producers, and sustainable communities at origin — often through the support of companies both large and small.

Here’s an opportunity to help the coffee industry make a big impact, as just one individual.

The American Red Cross is most familiar for their disaster relief services and regular blood drives.  Through a coordinated effort (and the wonders of technology), the coffee industry can support a national campaign which provides benefits in our local communities.

Our industry is familiar to contributing to those in need through organizations and volunteer programs: Grounds for Health, Food 4 Farmers, Coffee Kids, Café Feminine, Java Jog, and many others benefit from our support. Our own company supports our food shelf with coffee donations from our quality control laboratory.   These are all respected programs and help many, many deserving people.

WHY GIVE BLOOD

Donating blood is a critical way to help those in need within our own communities.

A single blood donation can help save up to three lives and is in need every day, not just after a disaster.  Donations can be used in hospital emergency rooms for accident and burn victims, during surgeries and for organ transplant patients, for Sickle Cell patients, and those with other chronic diseases.  Blood and plasma donations are used to battle several types of cancer. Platelets donation is especially critical because certain cancers and cancer treatments prevent patients from producing their own.

Many coffee professionals probably already donate blood and/or platelets in a regular basis. Wouldn’t it be impressive to coordinate the impact of all coffee industry professional to track our success and how many lives we save?

CALL TO ACTION

To better understand the impact of the coffee industries’ blood donations, the Specialty Coffee Professionals team has been created.

This team, which is one of over 26 thousand teams at the American Red Cross, utilizes the mobile application to track donations and lives saved. More importantly, it also records the collaborative impact of the coffee industry’ s contribution.

Examples of donation teams are college alumni associations, company employee groups, church/synagogue members, city and town groups, etc.

Donation teams are accessible on the mobile application, which is very easy to use and is available for both Android and Apple devices.  The mobile application is multi-functional as it is used to schedule appointments, track your donation history, and follow your donation’s journey.

Many of us can identify a family member or a friend that benefited from a blood donation.  There are certainly people in our communities with medical needs and patients in hospitals that require donations to save their lives.

Together, we can make a significant impact.

Please download the Blood Donor application and begin your personal journey of saving lives, helping trauma and transplant patients and those battling cancer.

DON’T WAIT. DONATE

As a high school student, I started donating blood due to the encouragement of my friends who were already involved in the Red Cross with their families.  A sense of pride and joy can be felt by contributing something so valuable with the potential for saving lives.

In my judgement, the coffee industry can make a substantial impact by use of a coordinated effort to contribute blood to the American Red Cross.

Those who already donate blood and platelets are encouraged to use the mobile application to join the Specialty Coffee Professionals group in the impact section.  Anyone new to blood donations can visit the Red Cross to learn more and register today.

Blood donations have a limited shelf-life (just like coffee) and the inventory levels needs to be replenished on a regular basis.

• Red cells are stored for up to 42 days
• Platelets are stored for up to 5 days only
• Plasma is stored for up to one year

After donating, the mobile application will track and inform you of your blood journey.

The coffee industry has a long history of supporting social programs.  Supporting the medical needs in our own communities with American Red Cross is a logical and easy to do.

Join the Specialty Coffee Professional blood donation team today, and together we can save lives.

Sharing on social? Use the hashtags: #DonateBlood #SaveALife #RedCross #BloodEmergency

More information is available at www.redcrossblood.org and www.redcross.org

 

Spencer Turer is vice president of Coffee Enterprises in Hinesburg, Vermont. He is a founding member of the Roasters Guild, a licensed Q grader, and received the SCAA Outstanding Contribution to the Association Award. Turer is an active volunteer for the Specialty Coffee Association and the National Coffee Association USA.