The UCC Coffee Project means that your congregation can partner with UCC Justice and Witness Ministries and Equal Exchange in building fair trade for small farming communities by serving fairly traded coffee, tea and cocoa, and chocolate, almonds, and olive oil for justice at fellowship hour on Sundays.
The UCC Coffee Project is a way for your congregation to join hands with communities in the developing world. As Christians we can address a consumer dilemma by buying coffee and other commodities that are fairly traded. Through the project, small farmers and their families gain more control over their lives, earn a fairer share of income, have access to credit and technical support, and gain a trading partner they can trust, a fair trade organization called Equal Exchange. And, through the project, members of your congregation can learn about consumption habits that support small scale farmers and workers throughout the world and encourage careful stewardship of God's creation. At fellowship hour, you will be taking action in a spirit of love.
To Order... or direct questions to Equal Exchange
What's Happening at Equal Exchange?
Shake Up in the Fair Trade Movement...
January, 2012: Equal Exchange has launched a campaign to reconnect participants in our UCC Coffee Project and other to the root value of fair trace, whose primary goal is to build market share for small farmers. Check out the campaign at the Equal Exchange site.
November 23, 2011: NY Times reports on tempest in the fair trade movement, quoting Rink Dickinson, president of Equal Exchange, who castigates Transfair's move to certify plantation grown coffee as "fair trade" as "a betrayal." Equal Exchange remains faithful to its mission of supporting small farmer cooperatives in the world's coffee-growing regions. Transfair has now changed its name to Fair Trade USA.
Alert from Equal Exchange: TransFair USA, long a major certifying body for fair trade products, has withdrawn from FLO International, the International Fair Trade Certifying body. Transfair USA had ceased to practice the original Fair Trade mission—to support small farmer organizations by helping them gain access to the international market. Equal Exchange, our partner in the UCC Coffee Project, left Transfair in the summer of 2010, to affiliate with another certification agency, IMO, the Instutute of Marketecology, because, for example, Transfair USA had increasingly permitted products from large plantations to be certified as Fair Trade.
Here is the World Fair Trade Organization's response to the Fair Trade USA (formerly TransFair)/FLO split.
Here is a recent blog from Equal Exchange to explain the upheaval in the fair trade movement.
- Explore Equal Exchange's blog about important issues in Fair Trade: Small Farmers, Big Change.
- A Taste of Justice is the quarterly online newsletter of the Equal Exchange Interfaitn Program about current Fair Trade issues, new initiatives and products, and what other congregations are doing.
- The Exchange, is the newsletter of Equal Exchange Coffee.
- Explore educational resources about particular fairly traded products:
Fund Raising with fairly traded, Equal Exchange products
A Bitter Cup? Facts about Coffee
- Coffee is one of the most heavily traded commodities in the world.
- Americans drink approximately 320 million cups of coffee every day?20 percent of the world's total coffee production.
- Some
20 million people near the equator depend on coffee for their
livelihood, but for many the coffee trade keeps them trapped in poverty.
With little access to markets, farmers often sell through middlemen who
offer the lowest price possible. With world coffee prices in constant
flux, farmers have no guarantee of how much they will receive for their
crop.
Fair Trade Standards and Equal Exchange
Equal
Exchange Coffee is a worker-owned fair trade company, founded in 1986,
that offers consumers fairly traded gourmet coffee direct from
small-scale farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Equal
Exchange seeks to establish an alternative model of trade, one that
benefits small farmers directly through the following fair trade
standards that apply to all Equal Exchange products:
- Always pay a guaranteed minimum price to the farmer.
- Work directly with democratic cooperatives of small scale farmers.
- Provide vital advance credit to farmers.
- Encourage ecologically sustainable farming practices.
- Develop long-term trade relations based on trust and respect.
- Offer consumers the finest gourmet, certified organic, shade-grown coffees.
How to Be Part of the UCC Coffee Project
- Serve fair trade coffee, tea and cocoa at fellowship hour, church events, in the office and at home.
- Design
congregational fund raising projects featuring fairly traded coffee,
tea, and cocoa. Give fair trade gift baskets as thank you gifts.
- Order
educational resources along with your coffee and make space and time in
your congregation for conversation about justice in the global economy.
- Encourage other places of worship or businesses in your community to partner with Equal Exchange's Interfaith Coffee Project.
Important Additional Information
Coffee Chronicles: The UCC Coffee Project Newsletter
Special thanks to Mike Rowe, UCC fair trade advocate in Pocatello, Idaho, for producing this informative publication.
- Coffee Chronicles, Issue 3 Here is the new, Summer 2009 issue. Check out reports on fairly traded products available for your church, the story of Katie Simenson's experience on the Equal Exchange immersion trip to Chiapas, and a reflection on the price set for fair trade coffee.
- Coffee Chronicles: Issue #2 Read about the "Battle of the Beans" among several New Jersey congregations competing for Fair Trade sales records, about the history of Fair Trade and Fair Trade certification, and about the Holy Joe's Cafe coffee ministry. Rev. Wally Ryan-Kuroiwa, team leader on our Cleveland staff and advocate for global economic justice also answers six key questions about the UCC Coffee Project. This publication is created by Mike Rowe, Justice and Witness Ministries Board Member with a passion for justice and Fair Trade.
To Order... or direct questions to Equal Exchange
For more information about the UCC Coffee Project, go on line to Equal Exchange's Interfaith Coffee Program at equalexchange.com/interfaith/, or e-mail interfaith@equalexchange.com, or call 774-776-7366.
Download a UCC Coffee Project Order Form directly from Equal Exchange.
Direct questions about the UCC Coffee Project to UCC Justice and Witness Ministries by phone at 866-822-8224 or e-mail at coffee@ucc.org.
Looking for information about the Holy Joe's Cafe Coffee House Military Chaplain Ministry?
