Coffee for a cause: Birch Bark Coffee Co. to raise funds for clean water.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: INDIGENOUS BUSINESS

Scrolling through his social media feeds, Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow found himself becoming more and more disillusioned with the growing water problem facing Canada's Indigenous communities. As the boil water advisories mounted, preventing so many Indigenous people from having immediate access to clean, potable water, he was moved to action.

His solution, as it turns out, was coffee.

In March, Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, a member of the Whitefish River First Nation, launched the Birch Bark Coffee Company, an Ottawa-based coffee roastery that produces fair trade, certified-organic coffee.

More than just a coffee company, Birch Bark is a social enterprise: $2.50 from the sale of every pound of coffee will go into a trust to purchase water purifiers for every home in an Indigenous community in Ontario that's experiencing water issues.

"I really can't fix the bigger problem of the water plant, but I can definitely bring clean water into a home instantly," Marsolais-Nahwegahbow said. "And when I'm done Ontario, I'm moving my way across Canada to work on every province."

In Canada, boil water advisories are issued when there are problems with the water treatment system, and viruses, bacteria or parasites are present. Residents are advised to boil their water for a full minute before using it to drink, cook, bathe, and more.

At the end of May, the federal government had listed 76 long-term drinking water advisories in effect for Indigenous communities across Canada. It has said it's committed to ending all on-reserve drinking water advisories by March 2021.

Birch Bark is partnering with Can-Am Wellness, which is providing BelKraft multi-stage water filtration systems at a reduced cost to the company, which will be installed in homes free of charge, Marsolais-Nahwegahbow said.

Good for processing up to 1,000 gallons of water, the purifiers' biodegradable cartridges last between 18 and 24 months, helping to remove everything from bacteria and viruses to heavy metals.

In May, Marsolais-Nahwegahbow launched an online crowdfunding campaign to help raise additional money for the cause after receiving inquiries on how people could further help. He said he's also been approached by retail and institutional organizations interested in hosting his coffee in-house.

"I'm getting a lot of people reaching out, saying they want to be part of this, and it's really not me; it's the cause," he said. "It's about feeling part of something, this movement of wanting a...