For co-founders Chia and Justin, Cafe Lugud is all about brewing love for coffee and country.

For co-founders Chia and Justin, Cafe Lugud is all about brewing love for coffee and country.

As we go through the daily grind measuring out our lives in coffee cups, we don’t often think about how much time and love goes into our morning brew. So when coffee lovers Chia Olivar and Justin David co-founded their social enterprise Cafe Lugud, they committed themselves to pouring as much love into their cause as they do into each sustainable cup of joe.

 

1. What is the story behind Cafe Lugud Premium Arabica Coffee?

C: Cafe Lugud comes from the term 'lugud' which is another word for 'love' in the Kapampangan dialect. Why Kapampangan? It’s because our social entrepreneurs and partners apart from the farmers who work for the coffee hail from Pampanga. We’re also volunteers for Gawad Kalinga Pampanga Chapter and we wanted to help out in sustaining the educational needs of the preschool students in the area, and thought a business with a heart (like Human Nature) would be the best way to go!

 

2. Why choose coffee for your social enterprise?

C: It was a personal choice, primarily because the social entrepreneurs behind it (Justin, his family and I) are all coffee lovers. We wanted to make something out of an item we loved to consume. We know how everyone also loves coffee, that’s why we made it our flagship product.

 


A whole lotta love goes into preparing Cafe Lugud's coffee beans at the Umali Farm!

3. What makes your coffee stand out among the others, especially international designer coffee brands?

C: Coffee is vastly available in the country, but most of the coffee that we patronize is imported from other Asian countries. We wanted to promote Philippine-harvested beans and show that local farmers can also compete with international brands. Apart from that, we also stick to the fact that everything in our coffee is organic and 100% natural. No chemical pesticides nor artificial flavoring was used in our coffee beans.

J: For each bag of Cafe Lugud that our customers buy, we donate a portion of our profits to the GK Sibul School scholarship fund in Pampanga. We want to help out the little ones in having more chances for their lives – and what better way to do that than to help them with their education?

 

4. What do you envision for your social enterprise?

C: We envision being a successful local social enterprise that will be competitive with other brands being patronized by the masses today. We eventually hope to have our own coffee shop sharing the brew and the love for coffee as well as the other drinks we hope to bring to the market in the future!

 

5. What advice do you have for young innovators who would like to start up their own social enterprise?

J: Be brave and be bold. Nothing easy will come your way. Building partnership with communities and bridging them to the consumer market needs a lot of courage to accomplish as these you don't really see eye to eye. The rewards are worth it, so set a goal and follow it.


[LEFT] Chia (center) with the kids of GK Sibol School Foundation | [RIGHT] Justin with their freshly harvested coffee beans