'A Cup of Kindness' Brews Up Hope

On November 21st a Cup of illy coffee Educates an Ethiopian Child

NEW YORK, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday November 21st, 2005, A Cup of Kindness turns your morning coffee (or afternoon pick me up) into hope and education for an Ethiopian child. Pick up a latte, espresso or any cup of illy coffee at participating cafes in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto and $1.00 will be donated to Share Our Strength to support Save the Children's Community Schools in Ethiopia.

From November 21 - 28th please the coffee lover on your holiday gift list at www.illyusa.com and 5% of all purchases for the week will be donated to this important program. Sip, shop and do good all at the same time without getting caught in mall madness.

About Ethiopia, Save the Children, Share Our Strength and illy

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and grows the world's highest quality washed Arabica coffee. Illy purchases the best quality Ethiopian beans at a premium price and has devised a processing procedure that increases crop quality significantly with little investment. The system reduces water usage in this drought prone land. This increased quality translates into increased income for the individual coffee growers. As well as co-funding the project with the International Coffee Organization and the Common Fund for Commodities, illy sends its qualified technicians to work on site and assist growers during the harvesting and processing stages as a further quality assurance. By increasing the value of the Ethiopian coffee farmer's crop, illy insures that farmers realize a profit for their efforts. This reflects illy's global policy of ethical and sustainable development throughout coffee growing countries.

125 million children in Africa have no access to basic education. To help further improve the current situation in Ethiopia, illy joined forces with Share Our Strength and Save the Children to support community schools in Ethiopia. The community school is Save the Children's flagship approach to quality basic education in high poverty areas. In addition to educating boys and girls, the schools act as a community resource, providing health and nutrition education, basic health services such as first aid, immunization and de-worming, and adult literacy classes.

For further information on A Cup of Kindness and a list of participating cafes, please log on to www.illyusa.com.

Source: illy caffe

CONTACT: Jennifer Mitchell, +1-212-675-5525, jmitchell@talbertcom.com,
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Web site: http://www.illyusa.com/