EdiBeans: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
Luca MacAdie and Maddison McGuckin
Grade 6 students at Edithvale Primary School
Contact: Nathan Pearson (nathan.pearson2@education.vic.gov.au)
Edithvale Primary Students selling EdiBeans
Student Leadership in Primary school can be hard. Not many adults trust us to take the lead of projects and initiatives. This results in student leadership often becoming tokenistic, with typical activities such as speaking at assembly, and students not actually doing any real project leading. This is a story about our journey as leaders who didn't want to be token leaders; but we wanted to be leaders who made a difference and had an impact.
Student Leadership Pledge
At the start of each year, the student leaders at Edithvale Primary School in Melbourne’s southern bayside suburbs make a pledge as part of their badge presentation ceremony. This pledge demonstrates our commitment to being respectful, kind, and determined in all endeavours. It shows our vision of representing our school and community with pride, and leading with a servant's heart, prioritising the needs of others. Our goal is to serve our school community to the best of our abilities.
Our 2023 leadership team took on this pledge while developing our understanding of the impact we can have, not just on our community, but on communities on the other side of the world. We did this with The EdiBeans Project. By collaborating with local organisations and global partners like Café Femenino, we addressed critical areas aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and making a positive impact by ‘thinking globally and acting locally’.
Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy where the leader’s primary goal is to serve others. Unlike traditional leadership, which focuses on the authority and power of the leader, servant leadership focuses on the needs and growth of the community. A servant leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.
At Edithvale Primary School, we, the student leaders, embody the principles of servant leadership in everything we do. Our commitment to serving others is evident in our daily actions and the projects we undertake. In The EdiBeans Project, our servant leadership mindset was the foundation of all our decisions and aligned with the Inclusive Leadership approach from The Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program.
Global Citizenship Ambassadors Program and Edithvale Primary School
EdiBeans
The EdiBeans project began with, our teacher, Mr Pearson's passion for coffee, inspiring us to consider how we could create the "best coffee in the world" while making a positive impact. As they sought ways to raise funds for our community, the idea of selling coffee emerged as a perfect fit. The Student Leadership Team delved into the coffee-making process and uncovered unethical practices within the industry. This sparked our desire to find an ethically sourced product that also supported local communities. Through our research, we discovered Café Femenio, an ethical coffee supplier via 23 Degrees Roastery. The project gained further momentum when Meg Languages, through their Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program, offered support, aligning perfectly with the values and vision of EdiBeans.
Meg Language’s Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program aims to create a more interconnected, peaceful, and empathetic world by developing global citizens through grassroots student-driven projects which aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The program helps students build strong communities based on the ideas of Global Citizenship by connecting with peers and educators across Victoria and globally. We learnt that being a Global Citizen means taking action to improve our local community, which was also the aim of our servant leadership approach.
By participating in the program, we enhanced our understanding of Global Citizenship and we developed skills essential for leading initiatives that promote intercultural understanding and empathy. It drove us to look at and focus on what we can do as a leadership team that not only had a positive impact directly on those around us but also on a larger, more global scale.
Edithvale Primary Students selling EdiBeans
The program’s focus on creating meaningful communities who are globally minded aligns perfectly with our leadership goals. We already support various local charities and projects, and our participation in the program ensured that our initiatives would have both a local impact and global relevance. As the leaders of our school, we were given the chance to drive these initiatives, using student voice and agency, connecting with peers across Victoria, sharing ideas, and collaborating on projects that reflect our school and community needs. We learnt from others and shared ideas from our own project that inspired other students’ projects too!
A key takeaway from the program was the idea of how we consider our impact. As student leaders we hadn't yet considered how our ideas and actions could not only benefit our school community, but also wider local, state and global communities. Previously the school has raised funds through free dress days and small events. This created awareness about social issues, inspiring peers to be future leaders and change makers, however these had low longer-term engagement and were generally not as impactful. This idea of a wider impact led us to investigate how our initiatives could reach further than locally, allowing us to impact globally!
With a core part of the program being the SDGs, we were able to explore concepts such as diversity, equity, and inclusion. By looking at these goals, it reminded us to go beyond our local community and focus on having a positive impact globally.
EdiBeans Project
Communities supported by 23 Degrees
The EdiBeans Project focuses on fostering a sense of community, both locally and globally, through the selling of ethically sourced and locally roasted coffee beans. This involves partnerships, through the donation of funds raised, with local charities and organisations we chose.
On a global scale, EdiBeans' impact is seen through our partnership with 23 Degrees, a local roastery, and Café Femenino, a coffee-growing initiative that empowers women farmers worldwide. By promoting fair trade and economic independence for women in Peru, we contribute to better livelihoods and reduced inequalities. Traditionally in Peru, coffee collectives are controlled by men and Café Femenino support gender equality in these communities by supporting the establishment and operations of female-led coffee producers. Our choice to buy Café Femenino beans ensures that the wholesale profits are shared directly with the female growers and their communities. The EdiBeans Project addresses several critical SDGs:
Goal 1: No Poverty
Locally: By supporting local charities and community initiatives, we help reduce poverty and provide resources to those in need.
Globally: Café Femenino buys coffee beans from female farmers, improving their income and lifting their communities out of poverty.
Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Locally: Our work with Chelsea Community Pantry ensures that vulnerable members of our community have access to nutritious food.
Globally: The increased income from Café Femenino enables women growers to support their families, ensuring better food security, combatting hunger and malnutrition, particularly during tough agricultural periods.
Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
Locally: Supporting FightMND and raising awareness about Motor Neuron Disease contributing to better health outcomes and support for affected individuals.
Globally: Café Femenino runs projects to improve the health and safety of the female growers’ communities, such as medical centres, clean drinking water and school upgrades. These initiatives reduce health risks and promote well-being in their communities.
Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
Locally: Partnering with Down Syndrome Victoria promotes inclusion and support for individuals with disabilities, fostering a more equitable community.
Globally: Café Femenino empowers women by providing them with land rights, leadership roles, and financial control, reducing gender inequalities in traditionally male-dominated communities. This empowers women to make significant contributions to their communities.
By aligning with these SDGs, the EdiBeans Project not only has an impact on our immediate community but it also contributes to a broader, worldwide effort to create a more sustainable, equitable, and compassionate world. This alignment ensures that our actions as student leaders are meaningful and that we can demonstrate what it means to be a Global Citizen.
Real-world skill building
Edithvale Primary Students speaking about their project
Another benefit of the project was the real-world transferable skills that we developed from running a small business. We learned skills in:
Profit and loss: with the support of our teacher, we were able to understand what a profit margin was, how to calculate our profits, and how to process and donate these profits.
Stock management and price negotiation: We learned how to place and make business orders and negotiate wholesale pricing for our coffee beans.
Design and branding principles: how the logo we designed reflects our brand and our values, and how it needed to be simple and recognisable. As part of the program, we developed skills in graphic design using an online program to design and create our logo with two hands holding the silhouettes of two coffee beans overlapped in the shape of a heart, showing the care that this project has for the world around us. This allowed us to also design shirts and banners that we use at markets to promote and talk about EdiBeans.
Sales and marketing: Planning and running an official launch event for EdiBeans with the support of our State Member of Parliament, Mr. Tim Richardson MP, as well as members of the Chelsea Community Pantry and Lottie Dowling from Meg Languages, our Program Leader. We held a launch function and assembly; we developed merchandising skills such as uniform designing and how we display and present products to customers both in person and online; we made inquiries to sell our products at school events and farmers' markets and now have a bi-monthly stall at our local farmers' market selling EdiBeans.
Through partnering with local charities, we used and developed a range of real world skills. We chose to support organisations that supported members of our own community, such as Down Syndrome Victoria and FightMND. By engaging with Chelsea Community Pantry, we provided essential resources to those in need, ensuring no one in our community goes without basic necessities. Additionally, our involvement with the OzChild Giving Tree allowed us to bring joy and support to students in care during the festive season.
As a result we were able to make the following charitable donations in 2023:
Down Syndrome Victoria $152.60
FightMND $168.95
Chelsea Community Pantry $147.15
OZ Child Giving Tree $277.95
Total 2023 Donation $746.65
Moving forward into its second year, Edibeans continues to be a core part of the Student Leadership program, with a dedicated EdiBeans Student Leader as part of the team, and with consistent sales from our bimonthly BonBeach Farmers Market attendance. In 2024 we have decided to focus all funds into one organisation for greater impact and already have done some fantastic fundraising for a new charity, The Marine Mammal Foundation. For 2024 we have been able to donate $2488.00 to support The Burrunan dolphins in Port Phillip Bay and Gippsland Lakes in Victoria.
The EdiBeans Project at Edithvale Primary School is an example of the power of servant leadership and Global Citizenship. Through our efforts, we have supported local charities, provided essential resources to those in need, and empowered women farmers worldwide. By aligning our initiatives with the United Nations SDGs, we demonstrated how local actions can contribute to global change. Our partnership with Café Femenino not only improved the livelihoods of women farmers but also fostered a sense of global interconnectedness and responsibility among our students. Our participation in the MEG languages program and the EdiBeans Project that came from it empowered us as leaders to lead from the front, to become Changemakers, and proves that leadership in primary school is more than just reading awards at assembly. As student leaders, we are proud to lead by example, showing that even small actions can create a ripple effect, fostering a more sustainable, equitable, and compassionate world.
