LINCOLN, California, U.S. – For more than 30 years, Jon B. Rogers and his family have used their gourmet coffee business to make a difference in communities thousands of miles away. Now, the co-founder, president and 83-year-old patriarch of the family-owned, Lincoln, California-based San Francisco Bay Coffee Company has also received recognition for his company’s positive impact closer to home.
The Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce recently honored Rogers as its annual “Man of the Year” for his leadership and significant contribution to the region’s economy and quality of life.
U.S. Congressman Tom McClintock, State Senator Ted Gaines and Assemblywoman Beth Gaines joined business leaders at the Chamber’s annual awards program to honor Rogers, whose company supplies “Fairly Traded” gourmet coffee and tea to customers nationwide.
“Jon B. Rogers epitomizes the philosophy of giving back to the community,” said Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Cosgrove. “San Francisco Bay Coffee Company hires locally, supports schools, nonprofits, charities and the business community. All of this generosity is done with no fanfare or show.”
Rogers moved his company in 2009 to Lincoln and is now one of the area’s largest employers. With approximately 275 employees in Lincoln, the company roasts and packages millions of pounds of gourmet beans annually at its 525,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art roasting facility.
“We were honored to be at the Chamber dinner to recognize Mr. Rogers and his company’s contributions to the community over the years,” said Travis Johnson, a spokesman for State Senator Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado Hills.
Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, who represents District Six, said, “I love to highlight businesses and business owners that make this community special. Jon Rogers and the San Francisco Bay Coffee Company have been integral parts of Lincoln for years and I was thrilled to recognize his contributions along with the Chamber of Commerce.”
San Francisco Bay Coffee Company in the last year alone provided money and goods to various causes including a toy-program for foster children and the massive relief effort for victims of the catastrophic Lake and Butte County fires.
Long before ‘green’ became marketing’s favorite color, the extraordinarily close-knit Rogers family embraced social and environmental responsibility.
The Rogers family is creating a positive environmental and socio-economic legacy for future generations in various countries. Decades ago, the company pioneered so-called ‘Direct Trade’ which is hailed today as a ‘new’ approach in the effort to improve the quality of life for coffee farmers, workers and their families.
Its groundbreaking “Community Aid” program continuously raises the quality of life at farms through critical social and environmental projects. The Rogers family launched Community Aid — which differs from and goes beyond Fair Trade — after witnessing appalling” poverty that gripped some farms for generations.
With customers’ help, the Rogers family has turned its gourmet coffee into modern houses, medical clinics, schools, educational programs, clean water systems, food, clothing and expansive de facto nature preserves while creating sustainable economies and protecting natural resources in coffee growing communities in Mexico, Central America, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Africa (Rwanda).
A news report once described Community Aid as a “Mini-Peace Corps for some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere.”
Jon B. Rogers – who works along with his wife and co-founder Barbara Rogers eight hours a day five days a week– said his company has several guiding principles:
“Our goal is to improve the life of everyone who has contact with our coffee, produce the best coffee while making the world a better place at the same time.”
About San Francisco Bay Gourmet Coffee – a Rogers Family Company: Headquartered in Lincoln, California, the company roasts, packages and supplies whole bean, ground and single serve coffee including organic lines as well as tea to retail, wholesale and individual customers across the U.S.
The company uses only 100 percent, highest quality Arabica beans Grown for Good in concert with nature.
Its brands and divisions include San Francisco Bay Gourmet Coffee, The Organic Coffee Company, East India Tea, Fairwinds Coffee, Audubon Coffee, Pleasant Hill Farms, Black Mountain Gold and Café Jerusalem. For more information, please visit www.sanfranciscobaycoffee.com or www.rogersfamilyco.com
