Gallinas en Guatemala

Here at Covoya, the same collaborative ethos that drives us to build relationships across the coffee supply chain can be found in our social programs. Supporting coffee farmers often means supporting whole communities in a holistic fashion that goes beyond coffee plants or the cupping table. Sometimes what’s needed is providing childcare for coffee pickers or access to health clinics for rural villages. Sometimes, it’s chickens.

A willingness to listen is key to starting up any collaborative effort. While working with farmers in Huehuetenango who participate in our Café Delas woman-producer program, our Guatemalan origin team heard ongoing concerns about nutrition and food security in the remote coffee-growing areas. This sparked an idea: what if the women could produce their own fresh eggs?

This idea evolved into a project in late 2024, around the time Oscar Gonzalez joined the Guatemala team as a Projects Supervisor for Sustainability. Working with the women in the Cafe Delas program, which was ramping up in Guatemala after success in our other specialty origins, they explored ways to diversify their household income together. In conversation, the women in the program expressed an interest in keeping chickens, and a plan began to come together.

Oscar noted that many families in Huehuetenango relied on eggs imported over the border from Mexico. There were often concerns about the freshness of those eggs, due to the cross-border transportation, and the quality was sometimes questionable. Commercial egg producers often use antibiotics when chickens become sick, but don’t always adhere to the necessary waiting period before harvesting their eggs.

The producers and our team saw an opportunity to address nutrition and income issues simultaneously. By raising chickens, families could improve access to nutritious food for their households and sell surplus eggs to generate additional revenue.

Turning that idea into reality required collaboration and commitment from everyone involved. While Oscar and Byron Holcomb, Guatemala’s head of Specialty Coffee, focused on sourcing healthy birds and organizing training on proper poultry care, participating producers and their families got to work preparing for their arrival. Women like Doña Baudilia, Doña Cornelia, and Doña Maricelda built chicken coops on their farms. Using locally available materials, every coop took on its own unique character, reflecting the creativity and resourcefulness of the families who built them. By the time delivery day arrived, months of preparation, training, and collaboration had created a strong foundation for success

In September 2025, forty-seven Café Delas producers in Huehuetenango each received 26 chickens for the coops they had built on their farms. Delivery day quickly turned into a community celebration, with neighbors, family members, and fellow producers coming together to help unload the birds and ensure that every flock settled comfortably into its new home.

Today, the chicken project is well on its way to achieving the goal of providing supplemental income and improving household nutrition for the participants. The project was designed with longevity and the cyclical nature of farm life in mind. Once hens reach approximately 15 months of age and egg production begins to decline, participants can either sell the mature hens and use the proceeds to purchase new chicks or consume the meat to further support their families. This cycle helps ensure that the benefits of the project extend far beyond the initial distribution.

Perhaps the strongest sign of the project’s success is the interest it has generated among other women producers. Following the initial chicken deliveries, many women in the region expressed interest in joining Café Delas during the 2025–26 harvest season after seeing the tangible impact the program was having on their neighbors’ lives. Our team at origin is up to the challenge, exploring opportunities to expand the Café Delas program and the chicken initiative to benefit even more coffee-producing women and families in Huehuetenango.

Collaboration is at the heart of Café Delas, which has always been about more than simply paying premiums for women’s coffee and moving on. Agronomic training, continuing education, and sharing knowledge and resources are core components of the ongoing effort to improve the livelihoods of these woman producers. When participants share their needs, our team works to meet them with support that is tailored to their specific context, empowering women with the support they need to thrive both within and beyond coffee.