September 26th
John Carroll University, OH
Ohio Fair Trade Expo
“Ok, so technically September isn’t Fair Trade Month. But let’s be honest, when it comes to organizing and educating folks on Fair Trade an early start is always a good thing. I’ll start by saying what a beginning to Fair Trade Month! This event was incredible. Organized by CRS Fair Trade Ambassador, Chris Kerr and Fair Trade interns on campus, they pulled together a diverse audience of Fair Trade experts and Fair Trade beginners. Myself, CRS Fair Trade partner, Equal Exchange, and many CRS friends were on hand to give workshops throughout the day. And in between presentations was a fantastic Fair Trade marketplace. I was very glad the CRS Fair Trade Fund was able to help sponsor the event and hope it fuels the Fair Trade movement in Ohio. A special thanks to Natalie Terry for being my local guide. To find out more about the Ohio Fair Trade Expo visit their facebook page or watch the video on youtube.”

Marketplace at the Ohio Fair Trade Expo. Wetzler Studios for CRS

October 6th
Cabrini College
LaSalle University
Philadelphia, PA
“A busy and exciting day for me! First things first. A visit to Cabrini College for their Fair Trade Day, a kick off to Fair Trade month. With amazing effort from Cabrini staff, students and dining services, Cabrini’s cafe brought in coffee from CRS Fair Trade partner, Peace Coffee, to be served throughout October. Not only is it from Peace Coffee, but the coffee itself was grown by farmers of the APECAFORM cooperative in Guatemala, a cooperative CRS has been working with for a few years. Talk about directly supporting CRS beneficiaries! I was lucky enough to be around for the free tastings CRS Campus Ambassadors held that morning to introduce the coffee to the students.” Check out the photo of Bit, Nicole and Shannon working the coffee pots!

“Now fully caffeinated, I headed over to LaSalle University to meet Brother Bob Kinzler and give a presentation on Fair Trade. I’d never been to LaSalle before and wow, what a campus! LaSalle is just getting involved in Fair Trade and Fair Trade month is the perfect opportunity to start holding events for students. What I found really intriguing was when Brother Bob told me that the school asked students to write on different “essay” questions related to the LaSallian mission of the university. One of the questions this year was how economic justice is related to the Catholic faith. I’d say that’s a pretty good place to start as they build a fair trade movement on campus.”

Bit, Nicole and Shannon serving Peace Coffee at Cabrini

October 8th
DePaul University, Chicago IL
Meeting with students
“Full disclosure here. I’m a DePaul University alum. So it was great returning to campus and finding a group of students ready to take fair trade beyond the coffee they drink in the dining hall and make it a movement. Not just at DePaul, but starting to plan an event that would bring together the Catholic colleges within Chicago. In the meantime, they’re planning a chocolate fundraiser with CRS Fair Trade partner Equal Exchange. I’m not being biased when I say, I was very impressed with the students at DePaul. The people in the room knew Fair Trade and had very specific questions about the movement and how to make it happen on campus. I knew I was talking to the right people. Thanks to Julie for pulling it all together.”

October 9th and 10th
University of Notre Dame, IN
Renewing the Campus: Conference on Sustainability
“This was one of those conferences you go into thinking you know the subject pretty well, and come out realizing all the different perspectives you never thought of. For me it was the theology of sustainability. However, it was also a good time for me to realize how many people may not consider Fair Trade to be a part of the sustainability movement. We talk a lot about climate change and how it will affect the poorest of poor, the people who had very little with causing climate change, however we rarely talk about how to involve those very people in the adaptions to and prevention of climate change. Which to me begs the question, are we really addressing the issues of the people who need the most help. While many colleges and universities associate sustainability with green buildings, recycling and composting, local and organic purchasing (all good things), fair trade is our opportunity to participate in a system that not only helps these disadvantaged populations economically, but also stresses dialogue and mutual understanding. I really thank Notre Dame for inviting me to hold a workshop at this conference, to add to the voices saying sustainability isn’t just about the environment. But in fact, we need also to pay attention to the social and economic aspects of sustainability for the concept of sustainability to really be sustainable.”

October 13th
Dominican University
River Forest, IL
Presentation to students
“This visit started off right! I got to campus in need of a coffee and found Dominican’s Pura Vida Cafe. Not just Fair Trade, but a CRS Fair Trade partner! And then, the room where our talk was happening was filled with Fair Trade products. Coffee and chocolate samples galore. Before I began my talk I was informed one of the classes present had spent the previous class learning about Fair Trade. So Fair Trade’s not just in the cafe, but also in the classroom. And again, I was so impressed by the questions of the students. Focusing not just on the price of the product, but the quality of life of the producers. Thanks to the Students for Peace and Justice for organizing the event and celebrating Fair Trade Month!”

Final Thoughts
Thank you to all the universities that hosted CRS this Fair Trade Month and for our CRS regional offices for inviting me out to do these talks. It’s not only great to see all the activities being done on college campuses around Fair Trade, but it’s great to see the diverse groups involved in those activities. For those interested in being more involved in Fair Trade on campus, ask around! It may be a peace and justice student group, campus ministry, the “green” committee/group, etc., that’s already working on it. If you need help bringing Fair Trade to your campus, our regional offices are ready to help connect you to the right people, or you can check out CRS College to get information on the variety of CRS activities happening on college campuses around the country.

Photo Credit: Dan Wilson, volunteer at recent FTLA event

Joan and her family recently hosted me for a week as I made a series of talks and presentations on behalf of Catholic Relief Services to mark Fair Trade month.   Thanks to Joan’s efforts, I met Fair Traders of many faiths–Lutherans, Episcopalians and Presbyterians pop to mind–who affirmed for me how incredibly important people of faith are to building and sustaining a grassroots movement for Fair Trade in the United States.

As Fair Trade grows and flourishes in mostly secular arenas, people of faith are a grounding force. There are Fair Trade businesses and Fair Trade Towns.  Fair Trade is a topic of academic debate and media attention.  Throughout concerns and controversies, marketing tactics and branding wars, a stabilizing force in the movement is the presence of people of faith focused on respect for God’s creation, first and foremost.

I love to tell the story of Fair Trade being started by a Mennonite missionary.  I rejoiced recently when Islamic Relief USA launched a Fair Trade project with CRS Partner Equal Exchange.   I am heartened that the volunteers from FTLA join together as a people of many faiths, and none at all, to build community commitments to economic justice.   All these efforts at the grassroots foster my hope that even in the secular marketplace, Fair Trade will be shaped by the ethos and the activities of people who seek to serve a purpose greater than themselves.

This post was originally published on the Fair Trade Resource Network’s Spirituality and Faith blog.  Please visit it for other interfaith reflections.

The Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative helped shape good ideas for celebration through a national webcast on August 25, 2009.   CRS Fair Trade, along with Jill Rauh of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, grounded the discussion in the call of Catholic social teaching to promoting economic justice.  We then explored what Fair Trade means and the opportunities CRS Fair Trade offers for converting your parish to Fair Trade coffee, Raising Money Right through chocolate, or hosting a community Work of Human Hands crafts sale.

October is a great month to implement or launch Fair Trade activities, so be sure and check out the webcast for organizing ideas.  Also check out our free resources for your community.

One strategy I’ve heard for keeping on track with your aspirations is to set benchmarks to chart progress.  Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade has developed a checklist tool to help you stay on course for economic justice all year long.  Inspired by the efforts of our friends at Global Exchange and the success of parish-based resolutions from California Fair Trade Ambassador Kevin Olin, we have come up with some suggested resolutions tied to the liturgical calendar. Starting off with a prayer for our brothers and sisters struggling in poverty, and highlighting national events such as Fair Trade month in October, this one-pager can give you ideas for a whole year of Fair Trade. We’ve also added some ideas for service and legislative advocacy. Here’s a PDF of our 2009 Fair Trade Resolutions: 2009-resolutionsfinal

Another tip for sticking with your goals is to enlist the support of others.  This blog can be your spot for asking for resources or celebrating success.  Don’t hesitate to comment and to connect with fellow Fair Traders.  You can start by letting us know what YOUR resolutions are to promote global solidarity!

The theme of Fair Trade month has been “Faces of Fair Trade,” and Katy and I wanted to use this occasion to share with you a face-to-face visit we had with two coffee farmers in Nicaragua last year.  Juanita Villareyna and Rosa Jimenez are members of La Fem, a women’s cooperative in Esteli, Nicaragua that sells to CRS Fair Trade partner, Just Coffee.  Thanks to their partnership with CRS-Nicaragua, they and some 5,400 other farmers in dozens of municipalities around Nicaragua are participating in the ACORDAR (Alliance to Create Opportunities for Rural Development through Agroenterprise Relationships) project.  In this video clip, Juana explains how access to technical know-how and agricultural equipment will help La Fem participate in specialty export markets.

Rosa also explains why the women of La Fem embrace organic farming and, as Catholic Social Teaching would call it “stewardship of God’s creation.”  Off camera Rosa had mentioned organics as important to the health of her four children, and in this interview Rosa explains how she sees herself doing her part to protect the planet. Click and listen for yourself!

Fair Trade is a global movement, impacting communities in Africa, Asia and the US. But during the special month, let’s double our celebrations by learning about coffee from Latin American origins and beautiful Fair Trade crafts from Mexico, Central and South America!

We are back on track now and want to let everybody know that, in addition to publishing our Fair Trade Handbook, which you can now order directly on-line, we also have a new presence on Facebook. Check out our Fan page and see some photos of CRS’s work in Nicaragua and a video from time in Ghana. In addition to resources on our page, you contribute to discussions and add your own images and stories to spread the word about Fair Trade.

Whether in person, on the web or in print, CRS Fair Trade is trying to get you the resources you need to learn and act this month and all year long. Please join us!

Through our country programs overseas and our network of Fair Trade partners, we help producers in the field access the Fair Trade marketplace. Some past grants have included supporting trainings of artisans, sponsoring activities that improve coffee quality, and building the capacity of producer groups. Here in the United States we make grants to advocates who are working to build the Fair Trade marketplace. Some of our U.S. recipients, such as the Just Peace group of Manhattan College and the Chicago Fair Trade coalition, are using fund resources to galvanize their communities for Fair Trade month and beyond.

Here are some projects our Fair Trade Fund compost—if you will—is fertilizing:

• Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza in El Paso, Texas will receive $14,000 to support its Fair Trade education and outreach efforts. The center seeks to build its capacity to serve as a hub of Fair Trade participation. The Diocese of El Paso recently declared itself a Fair Trade Diocese.

• Providence Coffee in Minnesota received support for a pilot effort to provide Fair Trade hot chocolate at high school stadium events to raise awareness and educate on Fair Trade issues.

• The Fund committee allocated $10,000 in support of the United Students for Fair Trade convergence, to be held in Seattle, November 7-10, 2009. In addition to serving as an “organizer sponsor” CRS Fair Trade will provide up to 12 scholarships to college students who wish to attend this skill building event.

Natalie Terry of John Carroll University promotes Fair Trade flowers

Once Fair Trade month is over, the gift giving season approaches. Consider some environmental stewardship of your own in the form of reducing consumption. Instead of buying a Christmas gift, you can make a direct contribution to the Fund in honor of a special person. You’ll be able to recycle at gift giving time, and the recipient will know that she or he is helping to promote human dignity through Fair Trade!