Good Folks, Doing Good Work Cast
Sep 17, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 13 segments
In this episode, I sat down with Marcela Pino, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Food 4 Farmers. To understand the journey that led Marcela to co-found Food 4 Farmers, we have to go back to…
Marcela PinoGuestLukeHostThese data points are pretty significant, but the real significance to me is what's in between on the margins and in between the words.
What is the thing that we should be thinking about if a coffee producer is 60 years old, as we'll call it 55 to 60, that's the average age.
What are you thinking about when you hear that number?
How to encourage young people to stay in the land, even if it's a hybrid, you know, form where they go, you know, because everybody has the right to education and opportunities and their countryside doesn't have them.
Mm-hmm.
Some of them would like to come back after spending some time in cities and in the north.
So, you know, how to create those opportunities within their communities so people can stay and be happy.
But like you said, if you're only able to bring in $3,000, $1,500 to $3,000 a year, and you need $15,000 to $20,000 just to be able to survive, the reality is that you would leave.
Like I would leave.
I would go find other opportunities somewhere.
And so you kind of can't blame the children for not wanting to come and farm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How prevalent are these thin months?
So a number that the FAO has and the World Bank has put out there is that out of the 80 plus million people depending on coffee, 80% of those go through chronic seasonal hunger, which is what we deal with.
So in Food for Farmers, we are addressing chronic seasonal hunger, which is that which is caused by the thin ones.
It's caused by the ups and downs in the household economy that causes people to either eat smaller portions or eat less nutritious food.
These data points are pretty significant, but the real significance to me is what's in between on the margins and in between the words.
What is the thing that we should be thinking about if a coffee producer is 60 years old, as we'll call it 55 to 60, that's the average age.
What are you thinking about when you hear that number?
How to encourage young people to stay in the land, even if it's a hybrid, you know, form where they go, you know, because everybody has the right to education and opportunities and their countryside doesn't have them.
Mm-hmm.
Some of them would like to come back after spending some time in cities and in the north.
So, you know, how to create those opportunities within their communities so people can stay and be happy.
But like you said, if you're only able to bring in $3,000, $1,500 to $3,000 a year, and you need $15,000 to $20,000 just to be able to survive, the reality is that you would leave.
Like I would leave.
I would go find other opportunities somewhere.
And so you kind of can't blame the children for not wanting to come and farm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How prevalent are these thin months?
So a number that the FAO has and the World Bank has put out there is that out of the 80 plus million people depending on coffee, 80% of those go through chronic seasonal hunger, which is what we deal with.
So in Food for Farmers, we are addressing chronic seasonal hunger, which is that which is caused by the thin ones.
It's caused by the ups and downs in the household economy that causes people to either eat smaller portions or eat less nutritious food.
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