The Over & Above Foundation

JJ Bean's Over + Above Foundation extends our mission of honouring people through coffee by going beyond our basic responsibility as a roaster. After two decades of successful initiatives, including the recent Roasters For Wells campaign, we are excited to announce that Over + Above has become an official charitable foundation to continue making a positive impact in the communities we source from and serve.

The coffee we enjoy so much would not exist without the effort of the people who grow it. These farmers, who produce the best coffee in the world, also happen to live in some of the poorest regions on earth. While we always pay above Fairtrade prices in exchange for these exceptional coffees, we feel that there is much more we can do to make a positive difference in the coffee growing countries – over and above our basic responsibility as a coffee roaster. Rather than relying on third-party certifications, we committed to developing robust, industry-leading social and environmental programs that extend our mission of honouring people through coffee. 

We’re grateful that our customers have embraced this model, because it enables our continued participation in working towards a better world with partner organizations. (Learn more about our coffee sourcing approach.)

Children in the town of Haro Dumal, Ethiopia following the opening of their new school.

Over + Above in 2026

In 2026 we’ve committed $50,000 to help imagine1day expand access to quality secondary education in Ethiopia at Lemlem Secondary School in the Merewa village for over 1400 students. 

We began a partnership with imagine1day in 2017 and have donated over $175,000 to fund clean water and education projects across Ethiopia since then. We have continued to work with imagine1day as it has proven to be an incredibly effective organization, working to fulfill Ethiopia’s commitment to see every child receive access to quality education free of foreign aid by 2030.

• 2023-2025: Roasters For Wells was a collaborative effort with Elysian, JJ Bean, Milano, Moja, and Pallet to purchase a drilling rig that can create 45 new water wells per year across Ethiopia. The drilling rig was commissioned in 2025 and will help provide clean water access to 20,000 people in Ethiopia over the next five years.
• 2022: the community of Sizi received clean water for over 75,000 residents, with a newly built maternal health clinic. With a fresh, clean water source next to their clinic, doctors and patients had safe water for the first time. Local crews hit such an abundant supply of water that the new well is also able to serve a nearby community.
• 2021: four clean water sources were built in Hawo, Ethiopia, giving over 5700 residents access to clean water for the first time in their lives, and positively impacting health, education, and opportunities for women and girls in the region.
• 2020: supported the community of Buluk in rural Bale with a spring cap system.
• 2019: three clean water points were constructed in the rural coffee-growing region of Yirgalem, allowing farmers and their families to drink clean water for the first time in their lives.
• 2017-2018: construction of a kindergarten and two clean water projects for communities in Haro Dumal and Tsigeba.
  

‎The beginning of Over + Above

Our first Over + Above projects took the form of building houses with Habitat for Humanity, between 2006-2015. Over the years, JJ Bean employees have been involved in building over nine houses in Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Before each trip, JJ Bean supported employees in organizing fundraising events and then matches what is raised to reach the goal.

 John and Neto visit the coffee growing town El Chaupe, Peru in 2014.

Some of our other past projects include:

• JJ Bean has continued to sponsor tuition and living expenses for the education of girls in Kenya and Tanzania for over a decade (donating $6500 in 2025). Our cafes support ten girls annually through the Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES), and exchange letters with students regarding their progress.
• Between 2024-2025, we donated $4893.73 to Grounds For Health, a charity that provides women's health programs in coffee growing communities in Ethiopia.
• In 2025, we donated $13,572.70 to the Filipino Canadian Community and Cultural Society of BC for families affected by the Lapu Lapu Day tragedy ($4,286.35 of which was donated by our staff and customers through a tip drive). We also donated $700 to the ALS Society of BC through Shoot For A Cure and $308.30 to Food Bank Vancouver.
• In 2018 we donated $15,000 to build a preschool centre in Sierra de Piura, a coffee growing region in Peru.
• In 2014, we funded a project which enabled coffee producers to build solar-powered drying beds near Chiclayo, Peru. This helped them to bring higher yields of better quality coffee to market.

You can find more information about past projects in our News updates.

Disaster Relief

Over the years we have tried our best to help with disaster relief internationally as crises occured, usually through the Red Cross. Recently, we were moved to help with the crisis in the Ukraine, as one of our past managers, Svitlana Lytvak, is Ukrainian. We reached out to Svitlana (now returned to her beloved homeland), who recommended two trusted organizations we could support. We raised approximately $8,000 for Serhiy Prytula and the Maple Hope Foundation to support volunteers on the ground and supply non-lethal support including medical supplies, body armour, helmets, and radio communication devices.

Environmental Responsibility & Local Initiatives

In 2009 we completely redesigned our roasting facility for optimum emissions control. To eliminate smoke, our roasting machine has its own individual emissions control unit, which converts smoke into thermal energy. We also use a computerized control system which we developed in partnership with an emissions control manufacturer. This system controls our afterburner so the level of activity matches the quantity of smoke produced by the roaster. This means that our emissions control system uses no more energy than it requires for its task. Since these changes, we have reduced our thermal energy output by roughly 30%.

Starting in October 2018, JJ Bean initiated new programs and further improvements to help reduce landfill waste:

• A $0.50 discount to customers who bring in their own mugs, and a $0.25 discount if they use one of our ceramic mugs instead of a paper cup.
• To encourage less bag waste, we also increased the discount to $0.50 off for customers who bring in their own coffee bags.
• To encourage travel mug use, when customers bought a travel mug in October 2018, we gave them the equivalent of their purchase in JJ Bean gift cards. This amounted to $50,000 and helped prevent over 400,000 paper cups from landfill waste in the first year.

Other initiatives include: 

• Our JJ Leaf tea bags from food-grade nylon to corn-based bio-bags.
• Our disposable cutlery is made from wood.
• Our till receipts are Ecochit.
• Our muffin bags are non-bleached, compostable material.
• Our cold cups and lids and our are 100% recyclable in residential blue boxes.
• Our coffee bags are currently not recyclable, but can be reused (we offer a $0.50 discount on whole bean to customers who bring their own bags).
• Since 2018, we have been working with mugshare at UBC. In 2021 we began working with Reusables at our Powell and Dollarton locations. Both programs are designed to reduce cup waste in the community.
• Our “returnables” are collected at each of our cafes and sent to Return It through Regional Recycling. 50% of the money collected is donated to local Over + Above initiatives; past recipients include the Urban Native Youth Alliance (UNYA).
• In addition, three times a week, the Quest Food Exchange picks up all our excess food for distribution to needy families.

In 2023, our domestic orders shipped via Canada Post became carbon-neutral through verified offsets, reducing greenhouse gas emission by 696 Kg CO2e in the first year.

We give our burlap coffee bags away free of charge to those who want them for gardening or other purposes. Just call ahead to the wholesale office before picking up. 

Fostering Community & Culture

JJ Bean annually supports DOXA Documentary Film Festival, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Eastside Culture Crawl, Bard On The Beach, Stir, and Writers Fest as distribution partners for their promotional literature. Festival official programs can be picked up at any JJ Bean location during circulation time.

Fundraising Programs

JJ Bean has fundraising programs that enable registered charities and schools to raise funds by selling coffee or donuts to their supporters. We provide these at a significantly reduced price, enabling groups to donate the profits to their cause. Please reach out to info@jjbeancoffee.com if you would like to get more information about our fundraising programs.