Origin Story - Grounds for Health

Grounds for Health co-founder Dan Cox.

Grounds for Health owes its origin to a fortuitous coffee sourcing trip taken by Dan Cox with his beloved friend, honorary stepfather, and bored recent retiree, Dr. Francis Fote. That 1996 coffee verification trip to Huatusco Mexico was just the beginning of 25 years of focused commitment to bring cervical cancer prevention to women in coffee.

While Dan worked with the coffee coop leaders during the day, Dr. Fote wandered into the local hospital just to see what was happening. He returned and reported with horror that he saw women dying from cervical cancer which he knew simply didn’t have to happen.

Dan describes Dr. Fote as ”a swarthy American of Sicilian descent, chubby and hairy who didn’t speak Spanish. His enthusiasm was oftentimes hilarious.”

Dr Fote (left) talks with health officials including Dr Jose Valenzuela (second from right).

It was Dr. Fote’s idea that Dan mobilize his coffee contacts and friends to help him address this unacceptable situation while Dr. Fote worked on the medical side of things with very limited Spanish. By the next day he had befriended Dr. Jose Valenzuela, the local the OB/GYN doctor at Pochutla Hospital, who became a critical member of the team.

In the early days of Grounds for Health the work was done through the generosity of volunteer nurses and lab technicians from the US who went on twice yearly campaigns using their vacation time and at their own expense. Dan’s wife Casey even jumped in and became a lab rat on many trips.

Initially Dan would go on these campaigns and mostly give support through friendship and caring. He describes himself as the ”founder go-fer” whose eyes were opened to the amazing level of poverty and gender inequity in the coffeelands. This fundamentally changed the way he views life. He recently remarked:

“Whether it was blind faith, gross naivety or just plain dumb luck, something clicked for me and here we are 25 years later having expanded into five other countries, screened over 135,000 women, treated over 11,000 while training over 575 medical care givers, and well over 1,000 community health promoters. We’ve saved many lives and are going strong!”

He did this by calling on friends, explaining the situation and hoping they would respond positively. Among Grounds for Health’s first donors were Ben & Jerry’s, Jerry Baldwin, then President of Peets Coffee, Roland Veit, President of Paragon Coffee and Larry & Cherie Chaillain from Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters, and many of his former colleagues at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They jumped in motivated by belief in the cause knowing that there would be no tax deduction for a yet to be certified not-for-profit. These are but a few of the people who really cared.

Meanwhile Doc Fote worked on getting aid through the medical community and Rotary International helped by facilitating the logistics of getting equipment from the US to Mexico. Today over 150 coffee companies, hundreds of retailers and many, many coffee consumers have supported Grounds for Health.

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Grounds for Health became a certified non-profit in 2000, at which point an executive director and staff were hired and the whole operation was moved into real offices after five years working at Coffee Enterprises. A Board of Directors was identified that included medical doctors, public health officials and coffee professionals. To this day, the organization is led by a board of well-respected volunteer members of the medical community and the coffee industry.

The early Grounds for Health team.

Since its inception, innovations have allowed Grounds for Health to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in their work. In the early days screening was done using pap tests and lab facilities. This proved to be costly and ineffective in low resource settings, so they pivoted to the use of a simple vinegar test called VIA and, most recently, HPV self-sampling. Even the treatment options have improved.

It has changed from a predominantly volunteer organization to one that hires and trains local staff in the countries where they work to be the face of the organization in the field. This has allowed for an increase in cultural understanding and relationship building while maintaining the important goal of treating all women with dignity and respect.

As Grounds for Health has grown to become a highly respected organization in the field of international cervical cancer prevention, more and more women have been seen and more lives have been saved.

Dan Cox continues to be the face of Grounds for Health in many corners of the coffee industry.

I was asked recently about my legacy and I’m not sure how to answer. Certainly, I will always consider my family to be a measure of my success. After that, the award goes to my commitment to Grounds for Health. Starting and managing two coffee businesses is notable, but it has been a vocation. Volunteering to give back in a field I knew nothing about, with no expectations, or acknowledgement from women I’ll never meet, seems like more than a worthwhile effort.

We couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Dan for your 25 years of service!!

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