Peppercorns create a pipeline of aid to Cambodia

When Tom Gordon and his wife, Cris Peterson, visited Cambodia five years ago, they were given a simple request.

The couple were touring a farm that grew Kampot peppercorns, a traditional Cambodian crop.

“The pepper farmer was a poor guy, didn’t speak much English,” said Gordon. “He pulls out a handful of pepper, and we loved it and said, ‘What can we do to help you?’

“And he said, ‘Sell my pepper in your country.’”

Gordon, a journalist, and Peterson, a graphic designer, were moved by the idea and became determined to do anything they could to help the people of Cambodia, a country they had been visiting for decades that had been ravaged by war and genocide.

“The people are great — you can’t help but fall in love when you visit,” said Peterson. “They have nothing, their government is so corrupt and there’s no opportunity for them. And you can’t help but say to yourself, ‘How can this be? How can we have so much, and they have so little?’”

So the couple decided to find a way to sell the Kampot pepper farmer’s produce back home. Now Gordon and Peterson run the Pepper Project, a nonprofit that brings Kampot peppers and other goods to Orange County as a way to support Cambodian workers and charities.

The Pepper Project started in 2010 as a sort of hobby for the couple. Their first step was to go back to Cambodia and buy $5,000 worth of Kampot peppers and other products to sell out of their home in Orange.

“If we didn’t sell them, the worst thing that could happen is we have a lifetime supply of pepper,” said Gordon.

But the idea did take off, and the Pepper Project now sells more than 400 items — “everything’s got a story behind it,” said Gordon — including Kampot peppercorns and handmade crafts such as scarves, purses, aprons and jewelry. Now the couple devote their full-time energy to the Pepper Project and operate out of a storefront on West Chapman Avenue in Orange.

The Pepper Project assists Cambodians in two ways. Products are purchased directly from individual craftsmen and small businesses, increasing the amount of money that goes into their pockets. After those items are resold in the United States, all the profits go back to Cambodian charities that provide services such as children’s swimming lessons, counseling for victims of sex trafficking, employment for disabled women and water pumps.

Gordon and Peterson also use their profits to directly pay for school tuition, uniforms, supplies and transportation for nearly two dozen children.

Unlike many of the other nonprofit organizations that the couple saw in Cambodia over the years, the Pepper Project has no bureaucracy and no middleman.

The Pepper Project’s most popular item is, as one might imagine, the Kampot peppercorns, which come in black, white and red varieties. In addition to selling online and at their store, the couple sell pepper to local restaurants, including the Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa.

The restaurant’s chef, Alan Greely, said the Kampot peppers have a “sharp bark” and are “a lot fresher” than the pepper sold in specialty food stores in the U.S. He uses the spice in such dishes as his peppercorn duck, grilled lamb shoulder and black pepper crab.

“It’s really good stuff,” said Greely. “If you buy good quality meat, you sure as hell don’t want to skimp on the adornment.”

The Pepper Project’s jewelry, scarves, bags and bath products are also popular — about 70 percent of the sales of these items are to return customers, said Gordon.

Gillian DeGraff, a Pepper Project customer and friend of the couple’s, said she always gets “a lot of comments” when she wears her red sandalwood-seed necklace from the store.

“They’ve got some really unique, cute stuff,” she said. “It’s totally different than what you’d normally see. It’s really good quality and inexpensive for how good it is.”

Peterson said that in the past five years, the Pepper Project has helped several Cambodian charities expand their reach. One of the groups they support, Yodifee, helps young Cambodians with physical disabilities get access to education and skills training. When they first came into contact with Yodifee, said Peterson, it supported 10 children, and now it serves 80.

“You can buy a unique gift for someone, but you’re also helping someone in Cambodia by purchasing that product,” said Peterson. “That’s what this whole shop is about.”

Gordon and Peterson’s next big undertaking is a trip to Cambodia to introduce some of their American customers to the Cambodian craftsmen and charities that their purchases have been supporting.

The two-week trip will include tours of Phnom Penh, Ankor Wat and other temples, the Tonle Sap floating villages and the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields, plus a day of volunteer work and “shopping with a cause.”

The trip is scheduled for Feb. 17 to March 2. The cost is $1,349 plus airfare.

“We have a lot of friends and customers who are just excited about it,” said Peterson. “They’ll be able to meet the people who made these products, see their workshops, and they’ll be able to take donations over.”

Gordon and Peterson hope the trip will inspire their customers just as they were inspired when they met the Kampot pepper farmer in 2010.

Said Peterson: “When you support those small organizations that really are doing good, the good really does grow.”