Three Coffee Countries in Eight Days: CRS Hits the Trail

The summer season means travel time for many people, and Fair Traders are no different. Our own Simone Blanchard, Program Officer and Fair Trade Enthusiast in the CRS Atlanta office, is joining our friends from Cooperative Coffees to visit Central America. Simone and her traveling buddies aren’t taking a summer vacation though. They are headed to El Salvador to meet directly with farmers and visit a collectively managed, organic coffee farm. Then they trek to Honduras for a regional organic coffee conference with small scale producers.

Simone has done a lot of Fair Trade education visiting parishes and schools throughout the Southeastern part of the United States. Now she’ll get to meet personally with small-scale coffee farmers hearing their struggles and successes directly. Because she’s traveling with a group, including our partners at Cafe Campesino, Simone will also have the chance to exchange experiences and insights about coffee farming. Finally the itinerary includes a bit of time in Guatemala, reconnecting with our CRS colleague and coffee mentor, Michael Sheridan, and learning about CRS’s continuing efforts to promote coffee production and market access. Here are some of the APECAFORM farmers Michael has worked with in Guatemala.

Depending on how the internet connections are, we hope Simone will be able to log on and let us know how the trip is going. Once she is back home, we’ll definitely have her share an overview of her time and any photos she might have. Speaking of photos, the only down side to this trip is that Simone is leaving her cute daughter Sophia behind. Simone and hubby Brett are committed to “Raising Babies Right” and recently entered Sophia in a photo contest for World Fair Trade Day. Check out the honorable mention shot, which features the Fair-Trader-in-training, as well as a recycled denim book bag handcrafted by CRS beneficiaries in Madagascar.

And check back on this posting to see if Simone has been able to comment from Central America!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 and is filed under Coffee, Fair Trade, Fair Trade Fund, Organics, crafts . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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