ALAKEF GIVES

Alakef Coffee Roasters is a local business, with caring individuals who also enjoy being active participants in both our local communities and our world!

The Alakef Gives program provides financial support to causes and organizations that have a positive impact in our local and global communities.

Over the last 30+ years, Alakef Coffee Roasters has been committed to supporting our Duluth Community. While we have done so through various donations and charitable contributions, we are constantly evolving. By selecting an annual theme, we can focus our efforts and make a greater impact on our community and the people and natural resources it holds dear. 

Annual Theme – Water

At Alakef, we are proud to offer high quality, fresh roasted coffee. But did you know that coffee is actually over 90% water? Water is more than just an ingredient, water is the essence of a great cup of coffee, but even more, water is the essence of life.

Before the coffee arrives at Alakef to be roasted and packaged into the drink you know and love, it has undergone a long and complex journey often involving water. As a small shrub crop, coffee grows best in diverse tropical agroforestry systems. It requires regular rainfall to grow, flower, and fruit. The coffee fruit is harvested, fermented, and finally washed with water to remove the pulp and fruit skins around it. Then, that seed is dried, de-hulled, and packed into grain bags and containers to be shipped across the ocean (big water!) in large vessels to arrive at a warehouse facility where it is then shipped by freight to Alakef.

Located in Duluth, Alakef is geographically surrounded by freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams including the largest freshwater lake in North America, Lake Superior. All of these waterways are paramount to our community’s ecology, economy, and culture. It is important to protect the vitality of our watersheds for generations to come.

An organization we are proud to partner with for our annual theme is the St. Louis River Alliance. This organization has been around since 1996 as a strong advocate for sound management and responsible stewardship of the St. Louis River, located in the Twin Ports. You can learn more about them at their website www.stlouisriver.org or by attending one of their upcoming events!

Want to get involved?

Perhaps the best way to get involved is to go out and enjoy the land of 10,000 lakes. Next time you’re headed up the North Shore, kayaking in the St. Louis River, portaging in the Boundary Waters, or fishing in Gull Lake, bring along a hot (or iced) cup of Alakef coffee to savor. 

Upon checkout, our online customers have the option to “round up” for our annual theme. 100% of roundup gifts go to organizations working to protect our waterways such as the St. Louis River Alliance and Save the Boundary Waters.

You can also shop for our partnership blend coffee. 100% of net proceeds from our partnership blend is donated to the St. Louis River Alliance. Watch out for our newsletter and webstore for more details.

While we are focusing our efforts on the theme of water for the duration of 2022 and 2023, we are still committed to supporting organizations we have historically invested in and partnered with. If you have an upcoming cause or event, reach out to us directly at info@alakef.com.

We are now accepting cause/charity recommendation submissions for our 2024 Alakef Gives program and annual theme.

Organizations we have recently sponsored or donated to: