Ok so here it goes, this year has been a wild one for sure! Not many people will be sad to say goodbye to 2020 and put this mess behind us. First off, I passionately believe that although many of us including Vournas Coffee have been beat up, we continue to still stand and deliver great green. Everyone of our roasters is like family and we do know the pains this year has brought onto all of you. Secondly, we are all in this together, we will persevere and continue to do what we do which is make the world a better place one cup of coffee at a time. I know at some point we will look back at this time period and wonder how the hell did we make it… for now lets spend some time with family this Thanksgiving and really tell each other how important they are to have in our life.
We are thankful to our great crew here at Vournas who everyday show up and move coffee and really care about what they do here. We often think about and give thanks to the truckers who roll down the highways to get your pallets where they need to go! Their job is now a lot riskier than it ever was. To our farmers and Co-Ops who have always had it tough but now must contend with a spreading virus. There are a lot of hands that touch our green and many more that turn that green into black gold. So, it is my hope sooner than later, and it will be sooner than later, that we turn the corner, we get back up, dust ourselves off, and carry on.
There is an old song written by Johnny Nash then covered by Jimmy Cliff… here is the first part of this amazing, positive, and great sounding song.
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
So, here is to brighter days ahead and however you spend Thanksgiving Day, and oh yeah, maybe a nice glass of Red to go with that bird in the oven. In parting, my Yiayia (grandmother in Greek) who was born in 1904-2008 and lived thru the Spanish Flu would always tell me in Greek, “Fasuli, Fasuli gamesu sackuli” (bean by bean you fill the sack). Let us refill the sack.
Wishing you all love and safe days ahead,
Andrew Vournas
President & CEO
