Los Cuchareros de San Lucas Toliman

In 2003, Los Cuchareros de San Lucas Tolimán (SLT) began as a micro-economic project which now includes nine members in the group. San Lucas Tolimán is located on the shore of Lake Atitlan in the Guatemalan Highlands. The Lake Atitlan region is one of the prime coffee growing spots in the world and a known entity among coffee aficionados.  In fact, the woods we spoonmakers use are coffee, and gravilea, which is the shade tree that is planted near coffee trees.

In order to work legally in our country, we declare all our sales and in such, we pay taxes on our products.  And in order to avoid problems with environmental institutions, we have acquired the appropriate licensing to work with the wood.  We use primarily soft woods, which include coffee, gravilea, and taxisco, among others.  Each week, we gather to work on the group’s administration, divide tasks, and review our work. In this manner, we help one another improve techniques, develop designs and esthetics, and maintain a high standard of quality in our products.

The project serves as a way to provide income to local families and an opportunity to develop the skills necessary for managing a business or cooperative. Those of us who work with wood are also the same people that work with the land.  Spoonmaking is mostly done as a side project to help subsidize some of the shortcomings of farming. Also, many of us are studying, and the spoons serve as a way to support this endeavor through this time. 

The SLT Spoonmakers are integrated with the local parish project, Juan Ana Coffee Program, and are also supported by Concern America.  We, too, dedicate a portion of our profits to serve community members, specifically the elderly in our community.  Since our beginning, we have allocated a certain percentage of each spoon sale to give food, medicines, or monetary donations to social projects that serve the older generation who have few to care for them.