Saint Nicholas normally sells coffees through the Lutheran World Relief Fair Trade Coffee Project in the Narthex every third Sunday, but will be offering coffees, teas, hot chocolate, and chocolate bar gift bags in the narthex following all three services throughout Advent!

Customize gift bags for those special people on your list who enjoy these products while supporting the third-world country farmers participating in the Lutheran World Relief Fair Trade Program.

This coffee is distributed by a company named Equal Exchange that purchases 100% of their coffees using internationally recognized fair trade standards, seeking to balance the inequities found in the conventional coffee trade.

Coffee is big business — it’s one of the most heavily traded commodities in the world. But for the majority of small coffee farmers, who live in rural communities in some of the poorest countries in the world, the benefits are small. Deciding to purchace your usual coffee supply through this project rather than buying it at the grocery store is one way to help return a greater portion of coffee profits to the local farmers, their families, and their communities.

Selection & Ordering

Many different types and flavors of coffee are offered and there's also tea, hot chocolates and more! Buy a few on the spot, or for large purchases, bring in an Order Form (Download order form in Microsoft Word format) 

Fair Trade Coffee News

Coffee cups are brimming over with justice in Lutheran parishes and households across the U.S. Not only have U.S. Lutherans met the "90-Ton Challenge," they far exceeded it with the purchase of more than 99 tons — 99.04 tons to be exact — of fair trade coffee through the LWR Coffee Project since the "Challenge" was launched one year ago! Thanks to your help through your purchase of Fair Trade Coffee!

We are excited to announce that we have recently added Fair Trade chocolate to our program. Read more below:

Chocolate!

Here's the scoop on the Fair Trade Chocolate Project. Who doesn't love chocolate? Its rich, creamy taste brings a smile to faces. But for the farmers who grow the cocoa used in making chocolate, the taste isn’t always so sweet. West African countries are critically dependent on cocoa. Ninety percent of the world’s cocoa is grown on small farms of 12 acres or less. In Ghana, cocoa revenues account for more than 33% of the country’s total export earnings.

Cocoa is one of the world’s most traded and speculated commodities, but the vast majority of the money that cocoa earns goes to middlemen. Often farmers may be forced to sell their harvest for less than the cost of production, or for just slightly more, leaving little money to provide for their families. Low cocoa prices have meant severe poverty and even child slavery in West Africa, tainting chocolate with the bitterness of social injustice.

In Ghana, 40,000 cocoa farmers have united to form Kuapa Kokoo, a democratically operated cooperative. The farmers pool their crops to sell directly to international buyers. With no middlemen, the farmers receive a fair price. Also, the cooperative receives a fair trade premium that is invested in the communities—to build wells, fund schools, and provide mobile medical clinics and other benefits.

Kuapa Kokoo has a mission to empower farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, to increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities, and to develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa. The cooperative also owns part of the Day Chocolate Company, which turns their cocoa into Divine brand chocolate bars. This means the farmers are directly involved in business decisions about their cocoa and they’ll share in any of the company’s profits. The Day Chocolate Company is the first farmer-owned chocolate company in the world.

The Lutheran World Relief Fair Trade Chocolate Project challenges chocolate lovers at Saint Nicholas to put their faith into action and give cocoa farmers a fair deal. Check out the products offered! They make great stocking stuffers!

Questions?

Contact Diane Gyorgy at 410- 586-3012 or Tricia Casto at 410- 257-3414.