From our friends at CRS Fair Trade:

When you do your Christmas shopping through Work of Human Hands, it’s possible to ask for the impossible; gifts that create new possibilities for those living without peace, justice or the means to provide for their families. Now those gifts can be available to you at a more affordable price.

Tonight CRS Fair Trade will be joining in the 60th anniversary celebration of our long-time crafts partner SERRV. From a small group of church relief workers helping refugees rebuild after World War II, SERRV has grown into a $9.5 million fair trade network connecting thousands of artisans in developing countries. Since 1995 SERRV, through the Work of Human Hands program, has helped tens of thousands of Catholics in the United States participate in Fair Trade through community sales and catalog purchases. SERRV is also currently working with partners of CRS Madagascar to help improverished artisans earn fair income. The anniversary party tonight will be at SERRV’s historical headquarters and warehouse in New Windsor, Maryland. CRS staff, including Executive Vice President Joan Rosenhauer, will turn out to cheer the staff and volunteers of this influential Fair Trade leader. We also will express our deep gratitude for the years of partnership based on dialogue, transparency, and respect.

CRS recently spoke with parishioners of St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD, about their efforts to incorporate Fair Trade products into all of their activities and events.

If we want to use the St. Camillus model, what needs to be considered?

Here are some things to consider:
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CRS recently spoke with parishioners of St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD, about their efforts to incorporate Fair Trade products into all of their activities and events.

What is the price for the Fair Trade products?

These premium products are offered for sale at the cost of the product and shipping.  The price paid is usually much lower than retail prices for similar quality products, so parishioners are getting a great value while providing farmers a fair wage.  When shopping, St. Camillus parishioners learn more about Fair Trade, and are encouraged to support Fair Trade by looking for the labels shown on food packages.
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CRS recently spoke with parishioners of St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD, about their efforts to incorporate Fair Trade products into all of their activities and events.

How Did St. Camillus Build Support for Fair Trade?

The Fair Trade team began to build awareness of the need for Fair Trade through bulletin inserts.  Parishioners who were from other countries or who had been on mission trips also gave testimonials about the value of economic solidarity. Posters and resources were placed around the parish to garner interest and share information.
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CRS is helping more and more parishes and dioceses around the country support Fair Trade, and enable farmers and producers in developing countries earn a fair wage and improve their communities. CRS recently spoke with parishioners of St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, MD, about their efforts to incorporate Fair Trade products into all of their activities and events.

How did Fair Trade get started at St. Camillus?
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If you’re interested in Fair Trade Coffee, then you’re bound to be interested in whatever Michael Sheridan has to say about the subject.

In an article in the May 2009 edition of InterAction’s Monday Developments magazine, Michael looks at issues underlying the production and future of free trade coffee. Our friends at CRS Fair Trade blog reprinted Michael’s article in full here.

A special thanks to InterAction for allowing us to share the article.

We spoke with Holy Names Academy’s vice president, Kim Mendez Dawson, the day the truckload of Divine candy bars arrived at the school.

Not only were students at this Seattle-based school excited about the upcoming candy fundraiser, it was their choice of fair trade chocolate that had them cheering from their seats. Divine Chocolate gives farmers in Ghana a healthier profit from their cocoa yields.

By selling Divine Chocolates, Dawson says, her students also made an impact on the lives of women, who comprise a sizeable percentage of the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa growers’ cooperative. The cooperative owns half of Divine Chocolates and women are encouraged to take part in the group’s decision making.

“As a girls school you are privileged and blessed. It doesn’t happen to everyone,” Dawson says. “To help change women’s lives is incredible.”

To order Divine chocolate or learn more about CRS’ fair trade program, go to CRS’ Fair Trade site.

- Kai Hill

This is a longer follow up to a post published Monday. Please note that voting ends Friday.

Our proposal to help family coffee farmers in Latin America adapt to climate change has been selected as a finalist in the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Climate Challenge!

Many thanks to all those who voted to support our project concept during the first round of voting. Now we are on to the second round, and you have only until Friday, April 3, to vote to make it a winner! (Note: click on the “Support it” button.)

The Issue.
Climate change is changing the face of agriculture all over the planet. Since a specific crop can only thrive under certain environmental conditions, the increases in average temperatures and the radical changes in rainfall are changing our understanding of what can grow well where—what we call “land-use patterns.” The outlook for coffee farmers in Mexico and Central America is pretty grim…
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CRS regional information officer Robyn Fieser filed this report from Guatemala:

Angel Benjamin “Minchu,” a member of organic coffee cooperative Santa Anita La Union, and Luis Rhor of CRS Guatemala evaluate a young coffee plant. Photo by Robyn Fieser/CRS

I must admit, the prospect of visiting a coffee cooperative formed by ex-guerilla combatants who fought during Guatemala’s 36-year internal armed conflict was exciting. It was enough to make me pack my six-month old and every toy I could find into the Toyota 4runner and head toward the country’s Western Highlands.

I knew Santa Anita La Unión was a community of 32 farming families which had received land the government distributed as part of the Peace Accords in 1996. The largely Mayan community, which grows organic coffee and bananas and runs an eco-tourism program, is well known among the Americans who come to Guatemala to help start cooperatives of female weavers and teach in local schools. There’s a certain mystique surrounding it. I’ve been told, for example, that it’s a model for how communal living cultivates self-reliance and alleviates poverty.
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