Fabretto Children's Foundation

Seeds Camp: Protecting Childhood During Coffee Harvest

BY: Misty Lopez

In coffee-growing communities, the calendar looks different.

When November arrives after the school year has ended, children close their books, and classrooms empty out. At the same time, something else begins to pick up speed: the coffee harvest. The cherries ripen, families need income, and the risk that children will be pulled into work instead of rest, play, and learning grows day by day.

Coffee is one of Guatemala’s most important crops and export products. It is grown in most of the country and provides livelihoods for more than 125,000 families. In many coffee communities, these months off from school, from November through February, are the time when child labor is most likely to increase.

That is the reality Seeds Camp is designed to change.

A different kind of school vacation

Seeds Camp, led by our partner Seeds for Progress Foundation, takes place when public schools are officially on break. Instead of being left at home or taken to the fields, children walk safely to school buildings that reopen as Seeds Camp centers.

The day starts with something simple and joyful. A welcome at the school gate. A group dance in the courtyard. Laughter as children form circles and follow the lead of an educator who knows their names and their stories.

Then the learning begins, but it doesn’t look like a typical school day. Children rotate between reading and math reinforcement, group games, and creative activities. They are organized by age rather than grade, which helps everyone feel included, whether they are just starting to read or already moving on to more advanced work.

For the children, Seeds Camp feels like a mix of vacation and school: fun, active, and safe. For the adults running it, the goal is clear. During the months when the risk of child labor is highest, Seeds Camp offers a place where childhood can continue.

Meals that keep children safe, not in the fields

Spending the whole day at camp requires energy. Many children arrive having eaten very little. Without food, it would be hard for them to stay, concentrate, or enjoy the activities.

That is why healthy meals are at the heart of Seeds Camp. Children receive food and snacks that help them feel full, strong, and ready to participate. In some centers, fortified MannaPack is used as a base, combined with local ingredients and recipes. Cooks from the community prepare dishes that children recognize and enjoy, so each plate feels familiar and comforting.

For many families, these meals are a critical source of nutrition during a difficult season. For the children, a full plate can be the difference between staying at camp all day or leaving early. A child who eats is more likely to focus in a reading circle, join the group dance, and stick with an art project or math exercise.

Fabretto supports this work by helping strengthen school meals where MannaPack, provided by Feed My Starving Children, is used and by connecting nutrition to wider efforts to protect education and childhood. Good food does not just fill a stomach. It helps children stay in spaces that are safe and designed for their growth.

Libraries that last beyond the harvest

Seeds Camp runs for a few months, but some of the most important spaces it uses remain open long after February.

In three schools in eastern Guatemala, Fabretto and Seeds for Progress worked together to create and equip school libraries. These are bright, energetic rooms with tables, chairs, shelves, and books. During Seeds Camp, they become reading corners where children can sit with a story, share a book with a friend, or listen as an educator reads aloud.

After camp ends and the new school year begins, the libraries stay. Teachers can bring students in for reading activities. Children can return to books they discovered over the holidays. The same room that kept children learning and safe during harvest becomes a long-term investment in literacy and imagination.

Thanks to financial support from the Shaw Family Foundation and Global Humanitarian Mission, Fabretto and Seeds for Progress built three new libraries in 2025. We already have two more schools selected for library projects in 2026, and a growing waitlist of schools that need libraries.

Walking together for childhood

Seeds Camp is rooted in the experience and leadership of Seeds for Progress and the communities they accompany in coffee-growing regions.

Fabretto’s role is to walk alongside this work: supporting libraries, strengthening school meals that include MannaPack, and helping tell the stories that emerge from these spaces.

This partnership is built on a shared belief. No child should have to trade their education and rest for a few months of work in the fields. During the coffee harvest, there will always be pressure, always economic needs. But there can also be another option.

In the sound of children singing to start the day, in the quiet concentration inside a library, in a hot meal served with care, you can see what that option looks like. It looks like childhood protected, even in the hardest season. It looks like children learning, playing, and being exactly where they belong.