The nonprofit Equal Origins is calling on traders, roasters, retailers and everyday coffee and chocolate lovers to take part in Raise Your Cup, a campaign designed to shine a light on the women who power the world’s coffee and cocoa supply chains but remain undervalued.
The campaign coincides with the United Nations’ designation of 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer, a global platform designed to provide lasting change across numerous agricultural sectors. (A March 5 online conversation led in part by Equal Origins will have more on that initiative.)
“Raise Your Cup is designed to be a low-barrier, highly visible way to shine a light on work that, far too often, is unseen and therefore undervalued,” Equal Origins Founder and President Kimberly Easson said in an announcement shared with Daily Coffee News.
The Raise Your Cup campaign is kicking off with merch sales and a social media push aligned with Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. Participants are encouraged to snap a photo raising a cup — at home, in a cafe or anywhere they may drink coffee — and post it tagging @equalorigins with the hashtags #IYWF2026 and #raiseyourcup. Ready-made social media templates and branded merchandise are available through the organization’s website.
The Raise Your Cup campaign represents the first activation of Kindred Sparks, a non-competitive initiative led by Equal Origins designed to spur gender equity improvements among coffee businesses.
The campaign also promotes Equal Origins’ field-tested tools, including its flagship Gender Equity Index, a free diagnostic tool for organizations that provides analysis of current practices and guidance toward gender equity.
Equal Origins — formerly the Partnership for Gender Equity — was founded in 2014 by the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) as a collaborative research-and-development initiative to understand the link between gender equity and supply chain resilience.
Under the leadership of Easson, who previously served as vice president of strategic partnerships at CQI and held senior roles at Fairtrade International, the group has grown into an independent, women-led nonprofit operating across 23 countries and reaching more than 500,000 farming families.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
