Buy Fair Trade: 40acts Day #11

My husband and I try to be conscious consumers. As much as possible and wherever possible we try and buy fair trade and organic.  This of course can prove challenging but we feel it is worth the effort.

Jake orders our coffee beans (fair trade and organic) from a place in Toronto called the Green Beanery and he roasts them himself.

Our church serves fair trade coffee on Sundays. We have a woman within our congregation who makes sure that fair trade coffee is available for serving on Sundays during the time of fellowship after service.  She also sells, with the help of enthusiastic youth, fair trade Camino chocolate bars.

Thanks to people like her many of us are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of buying fair trade coffee and chocolate.

In addition to coffee and chocolate there are many other items that we can find “fair trade” including clothing, jewelry, fresh cut flowers, and soap, to name a few.

One of my favourite stores is Ten Thousand Villages, the oldest and largest fair trade organization in North America.  I buy many Christmas and birthday presents from them, my cupboard is stocked with many of their spices, and I have numerous accessories in my jewelry box and around the house that came from that store.  If you don’t know about Ten Thousand Villages let me introduce you because you don’t know what you’re missing.

Ten Thousand Villages is an independent non-profit fair trade charitable organization in partnership with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) that markets handcrafted products from around the world. Products are brought into the North American market through long-term, fair trading relationships.

Ten Thousand Villages was started in 1946 by a woman named Edna Ruth Byler who wanted to provide sustainable economic opportunities for products from developing countries in North America.  From selling products to friends out of her trunk, 65 years later there are 45 Ten Thousand Village stores in Canada and several in the U.S. You can also order products online.

I love this store for numerous reasons.  The focus of the business is on building relationships of dignity, and respect that support artisans in earning a decent living for the work they do.   The products Ten Thousand Villages sell are unique and each one has a story.  For any product they sell you can read about the artisan group that made it, who they are, where they are from and what they are about.  For instance, at Christmas I purchased a lovely owl ornament.  It was made by the artisan group Manos Amigas ( meaning “hands joined in friendship”) from Lima, Peru.  It began as a group to help disadvantaged children in their area and today twenty percent of Manos Amigas’ annual surplus is donated to a program that feeds and supports disadvantaged children in their community.

As a Christian, I know that the decisions I make about how I spend my money are not disconnected from my faith.  Jesus talked more about money and possessions than he talks about any other subject.  He knew that how we spend our money affects the welfare of others, our world, and us.  I think Jesus talked about money so much because he knew that we needed the reminders not to put our love of stuff over our love of God and neighbour.

Buying fair trade is one of the ways I can live my faith.

For more information check out www.tenthousandvilllages.ca and if you are a coffee lover, see the fair trade organic selection at www.greenbeanery.ca (or pop into the gym after service at Westminster U.C.  We’d love to see you!)