Wholesome!

Wholesome! Fair Trade Organic Cane Sugar is made from certified organic
sugar cane grown in South America. Take it from the words of one its
producers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scAoB9zz-jw

Fair Trade your holidays

Fair Trade your holidays!

http://www.fairtradeusa.org/holidays

Krochet Kids

"Behind every product is a person. A person full of ideas, dreams, and desires. Someone who possesses the inspiration for creation and the potential to break the status quo .  Krochet Kids, Intl         http://www.krochetkids.org/

Shop and Fight Human Trafficking

Human trafficking. It's a scary subject bringing to mind the horror of human being being treated as objects for sale. The problem is big but there is no need to despair. We can help and from the safety and comfort of our home. We can make a difference simply by shopping differently. The following article shows organizations who create and/or sell items made by girls who have been either rescued from prostitution or are at high risk of being brought into it if they aren't given other options.

http://consciousmagazine.co/8-brands-fighting-human-trafficking-need-know/

Successful Fair Trade Sale at St Clare

Visited the Fair Trade Sale at St Clare Church in Santa Clara where people stood in solidarity with the marginalized artisans, farmers and families around the world by purchasing Fair Trade jewelry, soup, creches and scarves. Thank you to the people of St Clare including the children who helped promote Fair Trade for putting on this wonderful event!

Fair Trade Sale at St Clare parish

Buy fair trade items and stand in solidarity with marginalized artisans, farmers and the families around the world at the annual Catholic Relief Services Work of Human Hands Sale at St Clare parish in Santa Clara on Saturday December 5 and Sunday December 6.

The Greater Good

A friend of mine purchased some fair trade Christmas gift from the Greater Good website. A portion of every purchase gives back to a worthy cause such asThe Hunger Site that funds food for the world's hungry or The Breast Cancer Site that funds mammograms for women in need. http://thehungersite.greatergood.com/store/ths/category/284/fair-trade

Zimele - To stand on one's own two feet

Zimele USA mentors women across ‪#‎SouthAfrica‬ to provide them with necessary skills and resources to break through ‪#‎Poverty‬. This ‪#‎FairTrade‬ program has empowered over 8,000 women to become small-scale entrepreneurs! See how you can get involved or donate! http://www.zimelecommunity.org/

Fair Trade Agent of Change

I nominate Adriana Niemayer as a Fair Trade #AgentChange. At Presentation High School she held a fair trade chocolate sale during Valentine’s Day, selling out in 15 minutes. She used her creative energy by baking cookies with Fair Trade chocolate. Neimayer started on online petition on change.org asking Disney to adopt a fair trade policy for all the products and services at its parks. Thank you, Adriana.

Fair Trade Sale Success at St Martin of Tours

Visited the Fair Trade Sale at St Martin of Tours Church in San Jose where people stood in solidarity with the marginalized artisans, farmers and families around the world by purchasing Fair Trade jewelry, soup, creches and scarves. Thank you to the people of St Martin of Tours putting on this wonderful event!

Fair Trade Sale at St Martin of Tours

Buy fair trade items and stand in solidarity with marginalized artisans, farmers and their families around the world St Martin of Tours Church, this Saturday and Sunday.

International Fair Trade Handicraft Sale

Sponsored by Our Developing World is the International Fair Trade Handicraft Sale on Saturday November 21, 2015 11-4 pm and Sunday November 22, 2015 1-4 pm at 13004 Paseo Presada, Saratoga. This enables you to do some solidarity shopping for Fair Trade Organic coffee, tea, cocoa and baking cocoa, Palestinian olive oil and Divine Dark Chocolate bars. Unique garments, baskets, carvings, Cuban miniature old cars, and lots more from many countries will be available. For information see http://www.magiclink.net/~odw/

Moonbean's Coffee

Found Moonbean's Coffee serving Fair Trade Coffee in South San Jose. Here they roast their beans bringing a quality flavor to their coffee. Visit them at 6219 Santa Teresa Blvd.

Pennies to Farmers

Paying the farmers pennies to produce the beans for a cup of coffee that costs $5 is unfair and an outrage.

Paris

Praying for Paris.

Wild Ophelia

Ophelia represents female entrepreneurs in America today. She is
independently spirited, fiercely unconventional, and wildly
ambitious. Just like her chocolate product, Wild Ophelia.
Recently, I uncovered this Fair Trade Non-GMO delight at the
Mission College bookstore in Santa Clara.

Visualize the Coffee Pickers

For the great majority of Arabica coffees, every single bean is hand harvested. This is where quality starts.  In Nicaragua, a picker is paid about a $5 a day for his harvest. To put that in perspective, that’s less than the cost of a single pumpkin spice latte in New York City. Just visualize how many hands have touched each of the beans in your cup of coffee.

Celebrate Fair Trade month by shopping ethically

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate by shopping ethically.

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/sd6-in-the-morning/Celebrating-Fair-Trade-Month-334215061.html

Visit to the International Gift Faire

October is Fair Trade Month! To celebrate I just visited the International Gift Faire at Lincoln Glen Church in San Jose. Open today til 8pm and Saturday from 9am to 6pm.

International Gift Faire

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate by attending the International Gift Faire in San Jose featuring unique handmade gifts, jewelry, home décor, coffee, tea, chocolate and more from Ten Thousand Villages, and other fair trade nonprofits that benefit low-income farmers and artisans in developing countries.

Celebrate Fair Trade Month with Joab

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate with the knowledge that when you choose Fair Trade coffee, you're helping dads like Joab provide a bright future for their children.

Social Responsibility in the Marketplace

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate by becoming aware of our social responsibility in the marketplace. See http://www.angelusnews.com/news/local/social-responsibility-in-the-marketplace-9125/#.VhtCSPlViko

Celebrate Fair Trade in song

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate with a song!

https://youtu.be/jRjSwCDs6_Q

Where is Fair Trade?

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate by learning where Fair Trade is. Choose a country from the map below and learn about the lives of the farmers and artisans that produce the Fair Trade products. see http://fairtrd.us/1cj00hK
I chose Madagascar where the Association Tsiry Andampin'ny Fosa was created in May 2008 by a small number of vanilla producers who met in the school building of the village Andampin’ny Fosa. They formed the association with the goal to produce and market top quality vanilla by combining forces and pooling capacities and competences of the vanilla growers in the region.

Heed the words of Nobel Peace Prize Winner

October is Fair Trade Month! Celebrate by heeding the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee who says “It’s not enough that they sit in their living rooms and complain about what they see on TV. It’s time for them to challenge their lawmakers and their politicians”.

Fair Trade Bananas

Happy Fair Trade Month! Celebrate with Fair Trade Bananas. Not only are you helping the Banana Farmers and their families, you are doing your body good.

Fair Trade Sales at Santa Teresa Festival

October is Fair Trade Month.  Celebrate with a Festival.
Santa Teresa Parish of San Jose is celebrating its
Tenth Annual Community Festival by selling Fair Trade
crafted items. You can choose gifts that change lives.
Shop for beautiful and fairly traded home décor,
accessories and other unique hand crafted items made
by marginalized artisans and farmers living in over 30
countries. Through your purchases, they gain the
income and skills they need to support themselves and
their families. The Work of Human Hands Sale is hosted
in partnership with CRS and SERRV, non-profit
organizations dedicated to eradicating poverty around
the world. You can learn more about the Work of Human
Hands at www.crsfairtrade.org/crafts.
Santa Teresa Parish
794 Calero Avenue
San Jose, CA 95123

Fair Trade Milkshake

Chill out with a Fair Trade Milkshake!

Fair Trade vs Direct Trade

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is: What is the difference between Fair Trade and Direct Trade? Fairtrade America explains :

Fairtrade is a global system that adheres to rigorous, internationally agreed standards to ensure that the most vulnerable farmers and workers are empowered to improve their own lives. By choosing products that bear the FAIRTRADE Mark, you have an independent verification that the claims made by the company selling that product are grounded in concrete evidence.

     

Direct trade mainly is used in reference to coffee and implies a direct relationship between the farmer and the company (usually a coffee roaster). Direct trade and its principles of getting to know and appreciate farmers more is something that we applaud. However, there is no way to verify if a company/roaster’s claims of fair prices and good treatment are correct other than their own word.

     

Furthermore, although some roasters may deal directly with farmers they still rely on intermediaries like exporters and importers. Therefore, there are still multiple links in their supply chain.

Divine Chocolate

I recently visited my Father at Stanford Hospital. He's out now and recuperating. At the cafeteria was Fair Trade Divine Chocolate bars. Inside the wrapper was not only the delicious taste of justice, but there was message on the inside of the wrapper telling me about the Divine story. To celebrate their Ghanaian ownership, Divine packaging is decorated with traditional Western African symbols called Adinkras. You can see Adinkras all over Ghana, particularly on hand-made crafts and fabrics. Each has its own special meaning.

Small Acts

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”  ― Mother Teresa

Fair Trade products at Draeger's

Draeger's market, located in Menlo Park and Los Altos, was founded by Gustave Draeger, who came to this country from Stettin, Prussia in 1903. From its humble beginnings as a store front deli to its proud new environment, Draeger's has never lost sight of its mission to provide the best in food, wine, and service which includes many and varied Fair Trade products such as coffee, ice cream, molasses, chocolate, rice and coconut oil. We thank Draeger’s for helping provide small farmers a fair wage for their products thereby improving their living and working conditions.

Fair Trade at North Market

Fair Trade Kicking Horse Coffee is available at the North Market Convenience Store in North San Jose. This small store is at 41 Rio Robles E near First Street and Tasman.

27th Annual International Gift Faire

27th Annual International Gift Faire returns to Lincoln Glen Church on October 16-17. Discover the Fair Trade gifts, home decor and jewelry and change the lives of families around the world.

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!

We offer prayers for the dignity of all workers, in the U.S. and throughout the world.

barkTHINS

Recently found a Fair Trade and non-GMO product named barkTHINS at the Draegers grocery store in Los Altos. They contain Fair Trade dark chocolate, Fair Trade Sugar and Fair Trade Cocoa Butter. The farmers who provide the cocoa beans, sugar and cocoa butter are getting paid a fair price, following good agricultural practices, and investing in their farms and communities.

Drought in Guatemala

California is not the only place experiencing a drought. In Guatemala, nearly one million people in Guatemala are struggling to feed themselves, eating only two meals a day. Below, see Paolino surveying his drought-stricken corn crop in Rabinal. Mayan Hands, a weaving organization, reports that sales of their products through fair trade helps their artisan partners to diversify their income, especially important when jobs in the agricultural sector shrink.

Happy Women's Equality Day!

Happy Women's Equality Day from Silicon Valley Fair Trade!

"We don’t want charity, we want dignity." says Rosa Guamán,
inspiring leader of the indigenous women’s cooperative Jambi
Kiwa in Ecuador.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream returning

We have your Pumpkin Spice Latte, but now returning is Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream and Fair Trade too. Yay!

Bullets into Hope

Decades of war have left Cambodia’s fields littered with brass from bullet and bomb casings. Heng Sopheanith, one of the artisans, chose to take these reminders of devastation and transform them into symbols of hope. “This work affects my life by creating employment, giving job satisfaction and a wage that can help me support my family, send my children to school for education and provide good food to help my family have better heath, as well as feeling a part of the community.”

Coffee Coals

When you think about it, every step of the coffee production process is an environmental nightmare. 17 billion pounds of coffee cherries, 9 billion non-recyclable single-brew coffee pods, and 146 billion disposable paper cups end up in landfills every year. When the average coffee shops are through with the coffee grounds, 22 pounds are tossed.
Rich Bruins and his group in Guatemala, took advantage of the pulp waste that is separated from the coffee cherry and packed it into energy-efficient briquettes to use for cooking. It dawned on him that the discarded coffee ground could be used for the same purpose.  Hence, Coffee Coals.