Community Investment

EARTH has a very deliberate and significant impact on the communities surrounding its primary campus in the rural and traditionally economically-disadvantaged province of Limón. Approximately 90% of EARTH's employees, and nearly 100% of the workers at the banana farm, come from these communities. EARTH incorporates community development into every part of the academic curriculum.

Training, Capacity Building, and Education

Open Classroom (Aula abierta) – Through its continuing education program, EARTH offers this 6 month training course in sustainable agriculture and business management for small farmers from the area. In 2006, 25 farmers graduated and 80 farmers will participate in 2007.

EARTH University Scholarship Program – More than 80% of students at EARTH attend on full scholarships. While EARTH’s approximately 400 students come from more than 20 countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean, EARTH currently has 13 students enrolled from the Limón province of Costa Rica, EARTH’s home province and one of the poorest regions of Costa Rica.

Social and Community Infrastructure

Community Center and Soccer Fields, Las Mercedes – EARTH provides and maintains a community center and two soccer fields for the Las Mercedes community which borders EARTH’s campus and is home to many EARTH farm employees.

Road and Sewer Construction and Assistance – EARTH assists local communities with materials and expertise to construct and improve roads and sewers.

Cultural Development

Mobile Community Library – For many years, EARTH’s Kellogg Library has provided this program to make reading materials available and to promote a love of reading among children and young adults in neighboring communities.

National Youth Symphony – EARTH helps sponsor an annual visit and local concerts by the Costa Rica Youth Symphony to enhance cultural opportunities in the area.

Environmental Protection and Development

Pocora Recycling Project – EARTH is working with the neighboring town Pocora to develop recycling capabilities and to train other Latin American communities in the same practice.

Siembra Institucional (annual day of service) – EARTH students, faculty, and staff, together with residents of surrounding communities, spend a day in the neighboring towns planting trees, cleaning up trash, painting schools, etc.

Economic Development

Teacher Training – EARTH runs a program to train teachers at technical agricultural schools to enhance teaching quality and include more teaching of entrepreneurship.

Young Entrepreneurs Program – EARTH offers this 7 month program to train young people from the surrounding communities to identify community resources and business needs, develop business plans, and learn basic finances.

Rural Entrepreneurs Program – EARTH offers this 7 month program to train residents of rural communities in Costa Rica in small business development and planning.

Educational Tourism Project – With local farmers, EARTH developed this program to generate non-farm income for small farmers in EARTH’s area by organizing “agroecotours” on their properties offered to groups of tourists who visit EARTH.

Advancement of Women, the Elderly, and Minorities

Unidos Volunteer Staff Project – EARTH staff makes donations through a monthly payroll deduction to provide cooked meals at a local retirement home and to provide scholarships for transportation and school supplies for local high school students.

Women’s Entrepreneurial Training Program – A 3 day training program offered by EARTH to provide 50 women with basic education in small business planning and development.