Empowering Young Coffee Producers with Coop Libertad & Wildflyer Coffee

The cooperative and specialty-coffee company have teamed up to uplift the next generation of producers.

BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT

Featured photo: A Café Juventud training session. Photos courtesy of Carly Kammerer

In Minneapolis, Wildflyer Coffee has built its identity around more than specialty beans. The social enterprise employs youth experiencing homelessness, offering not just jobs but stability, community, and a path forward. Now, Wildflyer is expanding that mission beyond the United States through a new partnership with Costa Rica’s Coop Libertad—a cooperative tackling one of the most urgent challenges facing the coffee industry: the aging farmer crisis.

“The average age of coffee farmers worldwide is 55,” says Carley Kammerer, founder & CEO of Wildflyer Coffee. “In some regions of Africa, it’s closer to 60. Less than 5% of farmers are under 35. We’re facing a widening generational gap with an impending supply and demand issue. If we don’t act now, there simply won’t be enough farmers to sustain the industry.”

Coop Libertad’s response is Café Juventud, a program designed to train, support, and financially empower farmers between the ages of 20 and 40. Participants receive technical assistance and a price premium—20 cents per pound of coffee—that can be reinvested directly into their farms.

Carley saw the initiative as a natural extension of Wildflyer’s mission. “My heart has always been in youth work, but my mind has always been about upstream solutions,” she says. “I started Wildflyer because I believed employment could be a more permanent solution for youth experiencing homelessness. When I learned about the youth coffee crisis, it felt like the same challenge—just upstream in the supply chain. I wanted to figure out how we could expand our mission to support young people at origin.”

For farmers like Mario, one of Café Juventud’s participants, the impact is tangible. With the premium from his harvest, he has been able to improve working conditions on his farm, upgrade equipment to reduce gasoline use by 30%, and refine his growing processes. “Many people don’t know all the work and effort behind a cup of coffee,” Mario told Carley during her visit. “Trying to explain more about what a farmer has to do to produce coffee is something we need and want to share with the world.”

Seeing the Challenge Firsthand

In July, Carley traveled to Costa Rica to meet with Coop Libertad’s CEO and young farmers in the program. The experience shifted her perspective on the interconnectedness of coffee.

“It’s one thing to study the issue and understand conceptually what farmers are up against,” she says. “It’s another thing to walk the land with them, to see their passion but also their stress. Suddenly, you realize how our actions as roasters and consumers are directly tied to their livelihoods. Climate change, low wages, unpredictable harvests—it’s not abstract for them. It’s daily survival.”

One moment in particular stuck with her: sitting at Mario’s home, drinking coffee harvested just a few feet away. “It felt surreal—one of those ‘how did I get here, but I’m so glad I am’ moments,” she says. “We weren’t just business partners; we were friends united by a shared mission. It made me fall in love with coffee in a new way.”

Parallel Journeys: From Minnesota to Costa Rica

For Carley, the connections between the young farmers of Coop Libertad and the youth she works with in Minnesota are striking. “It comes down to fighting for a better life,” she says. “There’s this incredible resilience, hope, and determination.”

“One of our graduates once told me that homelessness is ‘hard, and it wears and tears just like a job would.’ When Mario talked about wanting people to understand the work behind coffee, it felt so similar,” she continues. “Both groups are asking for recognition of the effort it takes to survive and build a future.”

Partnering for a Collaborative Roast

The partnership between Wildflyer and Coop Libertad will culminate in the launch of a collaborative roast on October 1, 2025. Carley hopes it sparks awareness as well as excitement.

“There’s a lot of energy around coffee that supports women farmers, fair wages, or certifications like organic and Rainforest Alliance—all of which are important,” she says. “But I don’t see much conversation around this youth crisis, and I think it’s critical. This roast is creating futures across the supply chain, uniting youth in Costa Rica with youth in Minneapolis and St. Paul. That’s something special.”

Carley sees this partnership not as a one-off collaboration, but as the foundation of a long-term shift in Wildflyer’s sourcing practices. “Our plan is to grow our relationship with Coop Libertad and Café Juventud, and then expand to other origins,” she says. “Ultimately, I want every farm we buy from to be investing in youth employment opportunities and support. That way, every cup of Wildflyer coffee represents a future being built—whether here in the Twin Cities or thousands of miles away.”

For now, the October roast offers a chance to taste what solidarity can brew. As Carley puts it: “This cup of coffee is creating jobs in Costa Rica and here in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I think that’s something truly unique—and worth getting excited about.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior online correspondent for Barista Magazine and a freelance copywriter and editor with a primary focus on the coffee niche. She has also been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, providing content to help educate people about baristas and their work.

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