“CQI is focused on increasing our impact,” said Tina Yerkes PhD, CEO of the Coffee Quality Institute at the time of the LOT program's inception. “The work we have done at origin has been through relationships with other entities, and that has been a good model, and we see opportunities to expand our reach with an additional, and slightly different approach. The LOT program, Learning Online Together, is an opportunity for us to identify coffee growing communities and offer training directly to them on their schedule at no cost – because we are a nonprofit, we want to give back in ways that we can.”
Online learning was a goal that had not been at the top of CQI’s list before the pandemic, but limitations on travel and meeting face to face forced us to re-imagine part of our education system.
“We had the opportunity to devote time to in-depth strategic planning, which has focused us on new education channels, classes and courses, and ways to reach more people across the globe. CQI is committed to expanding our impact through technology and a diversity of education offerings,” Yerkes added. “It is an exciting endeavor, being able to build on our foundational education approach and diversify it by adding content and platforms to expand our classrooms.”
LOT - Learning Online Together - will focus on a different educational topic every year and remain a no-cost program.
“We are excited to kick off this inaugural year of LOT,” Yerkes remarked. “And we know this will evolve into a flagship program that helps us meet our mission of improving the quality of coffee and the lives of people that produce it.”
If you are interested in learning more, or would like to help fund this program, please contact Kristin Schrader at kschrader@coffeeinstitute.org.
