It is with great pride and excitement that I can announce that Sunday
– September 13, 2009 – marked the first day that the Greater Boston Vineyard
served Fair Trade Certified™ coffee and sugar in its Sunday
morning café. This was no random, quick decision. It took a 7-month
advocacy effort from a team of volunteers dedicated to seeing a shift
in the way that our church purchases and consumes products. To
celebrate we affixed permanent stickers to the coffee pots and a
permanent sign next to the condiments in the Vineyard Cafe. As people
filed in before and after services, volunteers had the opportunity to
talk with them about simple ways that they could combat poverty every
day. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Now that our team has
made the switch at our own church, we are ready to focus our efforts
on advocating for increased exposure and use of Fair Trade
Certified™ products in our larger community. We are excited to
see Boston become a Fair Trade Town in 2010.

Cafe crowd enjoying the new FTC coffee in the Vineyard Cafe.

A man pours a cup of justice.

Jeff Purser has a real passion
to find sustainable solutions to eliminate extreme poverty. He
recently completed his MBA at Northeastern University and lives near
Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Politics, religion and social justice rarely see eye to eye but, through Fair Trade and a campaign called Fair Trade the White House, everyone can find common ground to work towards sustainability. While it’s convenient to take advantage of cheap prices, most would agree that that consumerism should not be at the expense of the environment, personal health or of humankind. This particularly puts Christians in an awkward position because the need of providing for family in the most economical way can take precedence over their conscience. In an effort to ease our minds, we break out our checkbook and donate to charity. While this may do some good, it doesn’t resolve the issue of conscientious living, nor does it come close to “do unto others…”

Fair Trade offers a solution, allowing us to carry out our day to day lifestyle while positively affecting others at the same time. This practice of paying a sustainable wage allows us to be good stewards towards a better environment, healthier options for our body and greater social responsibility. If the solution is so simple, then what is keeping the phrase, “fair trade” from becoming a house hold name? Trade takes two. First, businesses have to offer something for the consumer to buy and second, the consumer has to choose to buy that product.

Currently, there are limited resources offered through the Fair Trade market and, while Americans love coffee and chocolate, we typically need more options to survive on a day to day basis (although, some caffeine addicts may argue). It’s for this reason that more and more business owners are taking the initiative to live and work ethically. In 2005, I, along with my husband and my twin sister, created Anti-Body (anti-poverty, beautiful body), a natural bodycare line, to make fair trade items more accessible to shoppers. Producing everyday products like soaps, lotions and lip balms with ingredients that have been traded fairly gives everyone another opportunity in the day to live responsibly. Now that there are fair trade options everywhere, from bodycare, to clothing and produce, Anti-Body initiated Fair Trade the White House, a campaign for organizations, vendors, churches and individuals who support fair trade to link arms and spread the message of sustainable living across the country.

Fair Trade the White House is an invitation to First Lady Michelle Obama to make her home a “Fair Trade home.” Regardless of political affiliation, this invitation allows Americans to voice their desire for ethical options and it also allows the White House to be a sounding board for Fair Trade. If the First Lady accepts the “Fair Trade the White House” invitation, the goal is to conduct a ceremony in May, 2010, “World Fair Trade Day.”

God called us to care for the poor and be a defense for the helpless (Is. 25:4). Fair Trade was started in the United States by a small group of Christians in 1946. Today, more and more churches are choosing to serve Fair Trade coffees and teas to their congregation. But the percentages of churches still not choosing fair trade far out weighs the ones that do. As Christians, we can further our stewardship to the environment, ourselves and to others by choosing to live the way God calls us to. Let us continue to do good through a fair lifestyle and encourage the First Lady and our friends and family to do the same.

Shelby Moser is the Co-founder of Anti-Body (anti-poverty, beautiful body), an all-natural, fair trade body-care company based in California.

Recently, I came across an article from The Frederick News-Post, a newspaper based in Frederick County, MD, that told an encouraging story. I thought you would appreciate it, too.

To sum up the piece: youth group members from two local Lutheran churches have teamed up to have “Christmas in July” Fair Trade Sale at their church. The sale serves many purposes: first and foremost, it raises money for the church youth group; perhaps more importantly, it’s a way for children to learn about the people and places where the goods come from, and in turn, build educational bridges with members of their communities who don’t necessarily know about Fair Trade or attend one of these two churches.

While I was attending Eastern University, a group of student activists I was involved with, SPEAK, were working hard to get Fair Trade coffee into our dining commons. So often, it felt as though we would be making so much progress and then hit a brick wall. Other times, the consistent meetings with the campus dining managers seemed unproductive. It was easy to look around and feel like progress was not being made; sometimes we felt very alone in our efforts, like we were wasting our time. Eventually, though, we did it. Now, with the exception of one popular-brand machine, our Dining Commons, cafes and at most of our on-campus conference, one can find hotpots full of Lamont Fairly Traded, Shade Grown, Organic Coffee.

As we prepare for the next phase of the Fair Trade Boston Campaign in the coming weeks, let’s not forget that people all over the world are laboring to love our neighbors and finding creative ways to address the concern of global poverty. Surely, there will be days when the work is difficult and the marks of progress are difficult to see. The past success of groups like SPEAK, or more recently, the work of our brothers and sisters in Frederick County reminds me that we are all members of one body, working toward a common goal. Let’s continue to spur one another on toward good deeds, celebrate the victories small and large, and think creatively about how we can express our faith with justice in mind.

Ben Cressy is a recent graduate of Eastern University, in St. Davids, PA. He is currently interning as the BFJN’s organizing coordinator, working part-time for 10,000 Villages in Brookline, and lives in the Uphams Corner neighborhood of Dorchester, of which he is proud to start calling home.