SAN LEANDRO, CALIF. - JBR Gourmet Foods, Inc. - one of the nation's leading providers of gourmet coffee and tea - has changed its name to the Rogers Family Company (www.rogersfamilyco.com) to reflect its 26-year philosophy and approach to its customers, business partners and corporate structure. In addition, the family-owned company has launched a new website that provides enhanced services and information for customers and buyers about its products and programs including its "Community Aid" program which continuously raises the quality of life for thousands of coffee farm workers and protects the environment in the world's premier coffee growing regions. Website visitors can also explore a coffee farm, inquire about individual and organizational fundraising opportunities, obtain a free DVD about "The Life of Coffee" or learn how coffee affects 8 percent of the world's population and its natural resources including rainforest and exotic wildlife.

Jon B. Rogers - a former Revlon executive and Princeton graduate - and his wife Barbara founded the company in 1979 when they used their savings and took out a second mortgage to purchase a small coffee concern and transformed it into what is today one of the nation's leading providers of branded gourmet coffee. All four of their adult children and their spouses today play an integral role in the company whose brands include San Francisco Bay Coffee Co., the Organic Coffee Co., Fairwinds Gourmet Coffee, East India Coffee & Tea Co. and the award-winning microbrewery - Drake's Brewing Company (www.drinkdrakes.com).

"Our new name reflects who we truly are as a company as well as our fundamental corporate philosophy," said Rogers Family Company President Jon B. Rogers. "Our mission is to help improve the lives of everyone who has contact with our products including the farmers and workers who supply our coffee and tea, our employees, business partners and of course our valued retail and wholesale customers."

The company's official motto is "Taste the Difference, Make A Difference." The Rogers family is committed to providing the world's finest coffee, tea and beer at a great price but also to raising the quality of life locally and in the communities that provide their coffee and tea.

The company established on its own accord programs that reflect that philosophy. "Community Aid" provides direct, continuous aid to thousands of coffee farm workers while protecting the land, wildlife and natural resources of 16 coffee farms/regions throughout Central America. With the help of customers who buy the company's products, "Community Aid" has completed myriad projects including building houses, medical facilities, schools, day care centers, providing doctors, nurses, teachers, food and clothing, constructing clean drinking water and energy systems, funding college scholarships and Little League teams to protecting rainforest and wildlife from poachers. Long before the headlines about the global coffee crisis, the Rogers broke industry ground and established "social contracts" with farms. "Community Aid" sets a fixed price for five to seven years - much more than the average market price or "Fair Trade" (a wage supplement) to fund social/economic programs, ensure the long-term viability and productivity of "source" communities, guarantee customers a long-term source of the world's finest coffee and protect the people, flora and fauna in and around coffee farms.

Other programs or partnerships include "Audubon Coffee" - a line of coffee produced for the National Audubon Society and certified by the Rainforest Alliance as meeting its strict standards as 'socially and environmentally responsible' - and the Rogers Family Charitable Fund.

The Rogers Family Company was founded in 1979 by Princeton University graduate and ex-Revlon executive Jon B. Rogers. Rogers took out a second mortgage on his home to purchase and eventually transform a small, bankrupt firm into what today collectively comprises one of the nation's leading wholesalers/roasters of branded gourmet coffee. The company also is the largest gourmet coffee roaster in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of the nation's few remaining family-owned gourmet coffee roasters. The Rogers Family Company includes San Francisco Bay Gourmet Coffee, The Organic Coffee Co. (the nation's top seller of 100% organically grown coffee), Fairwinds Coffee, Cunningham's Coffee, Pleasant Hill Farms Quality Coffee, East India Coffee and Tea and Drake's Brewing Co. The company supplies millions of pounds of coffee (including Fair Trade Certified) and tea each year to discriminating customers worldwide including Costco stores throughout the Western U.S. The company is headquartered in San Leandro, California and has approximately 100 employees.

For information on "Community Aid," any coffee industry issue, to purchase products, or to help "Brew the Right Thing," please visit www.rogersfamilyco.com or call 1-800-829-1300 or 1/510-638-1300. For information on the "Coffee Community Aid", any coffee industry issue, to purchase products or to help "Brew the Right Thing," please visit www.rogersfamilyco.com or call 1-800-829-1300 or 1/510-638-1300.

Editor's Note: Electronic photographs/broadcast-quality video of "Coffee Community Aid" projects, the coffee roasting process, coffee farms as well as the people, flora and fauna of Latin America are available. Media can also arrange a coffee farm tour. Please contact Jim Zelinski/Zelinski Public Relations at 415/882-7787, 415/420-6050 or email zelinskipr@aol.com or jimz@zelinskipublicrelations.com

Rogers Family Company

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