Ka'u coffee growers sent 375 pounds of coffee to troops serving in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan this holiday season.

The coffee was delivered to the troops by Hawai'i Air National Guard Gen. Robert Lee during visits to the area last week.

"We wanted to give something back," explains John Ah San, a Ka'u coffee farmer who has led the gift-giving effort. "We are thankful every day for the sacrifice of the men and women who serve so bravely in our armed forces. They are especially on our minds during this holiday season."

In December 1997, Ka'u coffee growers received their first reimbursement for the Ka'u Coffee project from the Rural Economic Transition Assistance- Hawai'i program. The program assisted in the transition from plantation agriculture to diversified agriculture by funding agricultural infrastructure and demonstration projects.

Ka'u coffee farmers, many of them ex-sugar plantation workers, receive the assistance for clearing land and planting coffee on land once used to grow sugar cane.

Ka'u Farm and Ranch Co. LLC, the land management company that oversees most of the coffee acreage in Ka'u, helped by providing logistical support and subsidized the processing of the coffee in concert with Greenwell Farms in Kona.

Make a difference. Donate to The Advertiser Christmas Fund.