Parishes On Fire About Fair Trade

As a follow up to the Business Week article Jackie blogged about earlier this week, I wanted to share a couple examples of some parishes that are on fire about Fair Trade. These just happened to land in my inbox this week, but they’re great examples of how numerous parishes out there are rallying around Fair Trade with a few charismatic leaders blazing the trail.

From Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish in Cutler Bay, FL

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish, in Cutler Bay, Florida, has developed a strong model for offering Fair Trade products for sale to parishioners. What started as a small Christmas project four years ago has grown into a full-time ministry selling Fair Trade products such as coffee, tea, chocolate, soup mixes, jams, nuts and many other consumable products on a monthly basis. Drop by the parish during the first weekend of each month and you will find ministry members manning the Fair Trade sales table after every Mass.

“Our parishioners have really embraced the Fair Trade concept” reports the Social Justice ministry coordinator, Linda Coughlin. “We have a fairly small parish, but our Fair Trade table is mobbed after every Mass. Everyone has their own favorite, whether it is the coffee, the 10 bean organic soup mix, the hazelnut milk chocolate or the dark chocolate bars. We give out samples of Fair Trade coffee and every month and our total monthly sales average around $700.”

From Most Holy Trinity parish in Tucson, AZ

With the blessing of Pastor Father Bill Remmel, parishioners, Mari Ann Finlayson, Pat Flores, Estela Garcia, Olga Ritchie, and Marie Verbout, of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Tucson, Arizona started “Just Goods” Gift Shoppe and Store for the main purpose of helping artisans in developing countries. The theme of the store is “buy a gift and give a gift.” You buy a gift for a friend and you end up giving a gift to the artisan.

Your gift to the artisan is an 85% profit for his or her work. This enables the artisans to make a fare and equitable wage to support their families. The artisan will not have to leave home and look for work in other countries. This is a gift of empowerment, not charity. The week of our parish festival we sold $1,100 worth of merchandise. We are so elated we are planning another sale in October. In the meantime we take orders on a regular basis.

Thanks to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Most Holy Trinity and all the other parishes out there for their hard work, and for taking a lead in their communities and in the Fair Trade movement.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 and is filed under Chocolate, Coffee, Events, Fair Trade, crafts . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Parishes On Fire About Fair Trade”

1. josiah mankowitz Says:
   June 23rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm

   I heard CRS’ fair trade coffee caused quite the stir at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, MD. I believe it took 4+ years for them to agree to use it in their Sunday post-mass Coffee ‘n’ Donuts. The first time it was proposed, this VERY wealthy parish wanted to offset the extra cost of 400 dollars per year by selling individual 1-lb bags. As they are the leader in the Archdiocese of Washington’s Cardinal’s Appeal, I”m sure they could afford it. Next year, the Parish Council took several meetings to finally agree to offer it ONLY once-a-month. There were a few folks who were very concerned about “fair trade.” A letter from the Acton Institute (the same conservative think-tank that brought us the Iraq War) was passed around by a member. This letter critiqued fair trade - of course. They might be serving it now, but they are not educating people about it when i look for the CRS brochures when i visit - the most important part of CRS’ program.

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