MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – After the earthquake and tsunamis struck Indonesia, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters learned that homes, roads and a mosque in Sumatra, where the company buys coffee, had been destroyed.

Thirteen children from the coffee cooperative in the Aceh province that Green Mountain helped start were missing.

“Our philosophy was to help the people we know first,” said Rick Peyser, a spokesman for the company. “We want to make sure that the communities themselves, we can get them back on their feet.”

Green Mountain and other Vermont companies with ties to Indonesia are donating money to help coffee farmers and others ravaged by the disaster.

The Vermont relief has been led by the Brattleboro-based ForesTrade, Inc., which imports coffee and organic spices from that region of the world.

ForesTrade has 75 full-time employees in Indonesia, some of whom lost family in the disaster.

“Everybody in the Vermont office is helping as best we can, balancing the relief effort and answering inquiries coming in,” said Stephanie Madoff, communications director. “We’ve just been bombarded with inquiries.”

CEO Thomas Fricke and his wife Sylvia Blancet, a co-founder of the company, were on their way to Indonesia Monday to meet with employees.

Fricke set up an organic coffee cooperative in the Aceh province in 1997 with $15,000 from Green Mountain Coffee. The cooperative has grown from 100 growers to nearly 2,000. Farmers are paid a higher price for their Fair Trade organic coffee, which is grown using sustainable methods.

ForesTrade is advising those who want to help to send money to two nonprofit groups – Coffee Kids and Cafe Femenino Foundation – to get the money to those who need it.

The funds will also be used to transport food grown by the coffee farmers down from the mountains to areas hit by the tsunami, Peyser said. Eight truck loads of vegetables has been sent to Banda Aceh. Another shipment is expected to arrive in the coastal city of Meulaboh.

Paul Ralston, of the Vermont Coffee Co. in Bristol, which buys coffee from the cooperative, said the tragedy has taken its toll emotionally.

“The biggest effect is just the emotional one because we know that some of our partner growers have lost some loved ones and some of their children are unaccounted for,” he said.

Aside from personal contributions, Ralston plans to work with other roasters to try to raise money to rebuild a coffee mill that was damaged by the earthquake.

“We’re hoping that the humanitarian aid takes care of food and water,” he said.

He said the damage will affect the coffee supply.

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., which imports vanilla from the area through ForesTrade also plans to make a company contribution and match employee donations, said spokesman Lee Holden.

For now, Green Mountain Coffee has set aside its Fair Trade Organic Sumatran Reserve coffee in its warehouse.

The company will contribute $5,000 to the relief effort. President and CEO Robert Stiller has pledged to match all employee contributions. Most of those donations also will be matched by the company, Peyser said.

“For us, one of the things that has been important through the efforts of ForesTrade is Green Mountain has been able to establish a person-to-person relationship,” Peyser said.

By Friday, 77 of the 608 employees had contributed $6,450. The company as a whole had donated $24,300.

“The contributions are still coming in at a good clip,” Peyser said.