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Hispanic Federation and Lin-Manuel Miranda release new report detailing impact of recovery efforts, road ahead for Puerto Rico’s long-term resilience
Puerto Rico — Marking the five-year remembrance of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, Hispanic Federation, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Luis A. Miranda Jr., corporate and philanthropic partners held a press conference in Puerto Rico and announced that coffee production on the island will surpass pre-hurricane levels for the first time. This year, Puerto Rico’s total coffee production will be 10 percent above 2016’s production levels, due in large part to Hispanic Federation’s Puerto Rico Coffee Revitalization Initiative, which sought to bolster Puerto Rico’s coffee sector with support from the Miranda Family, corporate and philanthropic partners. As part of the announcement, Hispanic Federation released a comprehensive report – Building a Stronger and More Resilient Puerto Rico – detailing the success of the initiative, the impact of additional recovery efforts and the road ahead to build Puerto Rico’s resilience.
“The devastation of Hurricane Maria and Irma shed a powerful light on the inequities that have existed in Puerto Rico for decades. To make matters worse, Puerto Ricans were faced with government inaction and ambivalence as they struggled to survive in the aftermath,” said Frankie Miranda, President of Hispanic Federation. “Hispanic Federation and our partners did not wait or hesitate. We worked rapidly to get people on the ground, deliver supplies and support the organizations in Puerto Rico that were key to the island’s recovery. This report showcases our vital work over the last five years and what can be achieved when local communities, nonprofits and donors come together to build a stronger and more resilient Puerto Rico. As we mark five-years of recovery, let us not forget the work ahead in affirming that our community is worth fighting for, and that change is possible when we are united in purpose and action.”
“It’s no secret my family loves coffee,” said Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning songwriter, actor, director and producer. “It has been an honor to work alongside the Avengers of coffee to uplift and support the local Puerto Rican coffee community. The majority of them are small-holder farmers running multi-generational family farms. I’m so proud of the work being done to address this important economic and cultural need. Do yourself a favor and buy some Puerto Rican coffee. You won’t regret it.”
“I am so grateful for the enormous support Hispanic Federation and the Coffee Revitalization Initiative has provided to rebuild a farm that has been in my family for generations,” said Antonio Burgos, a coffee farmer in Orocovis, Puerto Rico whose trees were 100% sourced from the Coffee Revitalization Initiative. “My son and I are proud to have been able to restore this farm, which once belonged to my grandfather, using all the best practices and resources to continue its legacy of abundance. We’re excited for the best harvest we’ve had in years, and look forward to the future growth and success of our farm.”
Five years ago, Hurricane Maria displaced thousands as it made landfall in Puerto Rico. More than 3,000 people died, 200,000 were displaced, the island lost power for almost a year and health systems were stressed. In total, Hurricane Maria left behind about $90 billion worth of damage. Hurricane Maria also decimated a key sector of the local economy – Puerto Rico’s coffee industry. Following the hurricane, 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s coffee harvest and trees were destroyed, resulting in an estimated total loss of $85 million in annual revenues for coffee farmers.
As Puerto Ricans waited for the government to respond, Hispanic Federation (HF) was a first responder to the crisis, and has been a major funder and driver of Puerto Rico’s recovery efforts. Specifically, HF – with support from the Miranda Family, Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters, Nespresso, Rockefeller Foundation, Starbucks, The Colibrí Foundation and more – launched a three-year initiative to revitalize Puerto Rico’s coffee sector, invested more than $50 million in Puerto Rico’s recovery, funded and collaborated with more than 140 organizations and initiatives across Puerto Rico, led dozens more, and bolstered more than 1,600 small businesses, micro entrepreneurs and farmers. Over the past five years, Hispanic Federation’s main mission focused on empowering and supporting Puerto Rico’s own vision for recovery, resilience and change.
As part of the Coffee Revitalization Initiative, over 2 million high quality, locally grown arabica coffee seedlings were distributed to 1,139 smallholder coffee farmers, increasing their economic potential by $6 million dollars at the farm level, and $10 million at the mill level. In addition to new trees, the initiative provided technical training and assistance to more than 1000 farmers in order to elevate practices, production, and quality of the local sector. These efforts have helped ramp up production to pre-hurricane levels for the first time since 2016.
Hispanic Federation’s additional relief efforts and grants were monumentally impactful for Puerto Rico’s recovery. Here are a few examples of the impact:
- Building Energy Resilience: Puerto Rico’s centralized, fossil fuel dependent, and long neglected energy system was no match for Hurricane Maria. It set the stage for a calamity of historic proportions, impacting all of Puerto Rico and resulting in the longest blackout in U.S. history. Some regions on the island endured eleven months without power. Working alongside environmental organizations, as well as dozens of other local nonprofits, HF was able to provide the funding, technical assistance and capacity support needed to contribute towards more than 250 solar energy installations in community centers, health centers, small businesses, schools, first responder stations, and more critical large- and small-scale community sites.
- Assisting with Housing Repairs: HF has also dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to addressing the most basic of human needs: safe, decent, and affordable housing. Over 92% of homes were damaged during the hurricane and the multitude of government programs designed to repair them have been slow and ineffective. The Federation’s response to the housing crisis in Puerto Rico has been multi-faceted and includes funding to repair and reconstruct hundreds of impacted homes, community, and individual legal assistance to marginalized communities, and local and federal advocacy to ensure recovery funds reach the most affected families and communities. Since 2017, HF has donated more than $2.5 million in funding to local organizations in order to help repair and reconstruct homes of the most vulnerable residents. Through these partnerships, more than 525 homes were repaired or rebuilt touching an estimated population of 1,400 residents.
- Responding to a Mental Health Crisis: Many community residents carried invisible scars from the loss of life, disruptions, and lingering daily effects of the hurricanes, earthquakes, and COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, the limited number of mental health professionals on the island lacked the necessary capacity to meet the demand and magnitude of these stressors. In response, Hispanic Federation collaborated with the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) to develop the University Project for Empowerment, Transformation, and Recovery (PATRIA), a first of its kind evidence-based model of interdisciplinary training and service delivery for a post-disaster mental health response. With more than $2.2 million in funding from the Hispanic Federation, PATRIA brought together teams of trained students under the supervision of licensed professionals to provide free mental health services for children beginning at age five to the elderly. Since 2018, nearly 10,000 residents have participated in psychoeducational workshops, and 3,000 therapeutic sessions were provided to 850 clients suffering severe emotional trauma. The experience of PATRIA also encouraged multiple community-based partners to permanently integrate or expand mental health services. Out of the PATRIA program, UPR developed two specialized curriculums for mental health professionals and human service providers, which they plan to integrate within academic offerings for future students and continuing education professionals to build the long-term capacity of the local mental health sector to prepare and respond to natural disasters in the future.
- Fighting for Economic Equity and Justice: Puerto Rico’s poverty rate is more than twice the poorest US state, and six in ten children live below the poverty level. With a median income hovering around $20,000, the capital city of San Juan recently ranked as the city with the highest income inequality in the U.S. and its territories. Our work seeks to both address the immediate financial needs of vulnerable households but also to change the systems and conditions that have led to such disastrous outcomes. HF has been a leader in Washington, DC advocating for equitable inclusion of Puerto Rico in the multitude of federal economic development programs, such as Supplemental Security Income, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and others, which have successfully lifted US families out of poverty and yet are not equally available to residents of Puerto Rico. In 2021, HF’s advocacy contributed to a major win of Puerto Rico’s full inclusion in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) program. Through ARPA, Congress also permanently changed a policy that had unfairly excluded families in Puerto Rico with less than three children from benefiting from the Child Tax Credit and provided a one-time $600 million match to the local Earned Income Tax Credit and a permanent $200 million annual match.
A full summary of recovery efforts can be found in this report.
In addition to the Miranda Family, the following people will be joining the press conference:
- Frankie Miranda, President & CEO, Hispanic Federation
- Charlotte Gossett Navarro, Puerto Rico Chief Director, Hispanic Federation
- Jessica Padula, Director, Brand & Communications, Nespresso
- María (Baby) Jaunarena, Executive Director, Fundación Colibrí
- Rachel Hines, Board co-Chair, Technoserve
“Coffee has long played an important role in Puerto Rico’s vibrant culture and economy. The impact that hurricanes Irma and María had on the industry and the communities who rely on it was devastating to see. Today’s projections from TechnoServe are very welcome news, and a testament to the transformative benefits that regenerative agriculture brings. I am proud of Nespresso’s support to the island over the past years, and grateful to Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family for their continued commitment to farmers. I look forward to supporting the Puerto Rican coffee industry as it continues to rebound and thrive,” said Guillaume Le Cunff, CEO of Nespresso.
“At Starbucks, we are working with partners and coffee farmers around the world to help ensure a sustainable future of coffee for all. When Hurricane Maria challenged Puerto Rico’s coffee community, we proudly joined others to support farmers by donating climate resistant coffee seeds and improving coffee seed lots to ensure the quality of future local arabica varietals,” said Michelle Burns, executive vice president, Global Coffee, Tea & Cocoa at Starbucks. “Since opening our first store in Puerto Rico 20 years ago, we have been honored to be a small part of Puerto Rico’s resilient coffee community. The progress of the Puerto Rico Coffee Sector Revitalization Initiative and the many partners who support coffee communities on the island continue to inspire us, and we look forward to celebrating the craft of Puerto Rico’s coffee farmers for years to come.”
