World Fair Trade Day is Saturday, May 8, and celebrations of fair trade will be taking place for the first two weeks of May.
Why celebrate Fair Trade? For starters, fair trade gives producers a just price for their goods. But it goes further: products are environmentally sustainable; partnerships are built on mutual respect and reciprocal benefits; workers have the right to organize; and national laws of safety, health, and wages are enforced. These sound like great reasons to celebrate! Learn more about fair trade and just living through Enough for Everyone, part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
The theme for World Fair Trade Day is “Fair Trade My Home,” focusing on purchasing fair trade products for your home: soap, sugar, clothes, toys, coffee, chocolate, baskets, picture frames, bananas, rice, tea, soccer balls, flowers, wine and more. Find an event in your area and learn more about what is going on in your community related to fair trade.
Read more about World Fair Trade Day and find a prayer on the Enough for Everyone blog.
Enough for Everyone has programs to help bring fair trade goods to Presbyterians: The Presbyterian Coffee Project links Presbyterians with Equal Exchange coffee, fair trade coffee that is grown sustainably (much of it is shade grown, therefore protecting forests), and is also delicious. Sweat-Free T-shirts give Presbyterian churches the opportunity to buy fair trade t-shirts sewn at a women’s cooperative in Nicaragua. With Sweat-Free T-shirts you can rest assured that your shirts were not produced with child labor, and that workers were paid a just wage.
The Fair Trade Futures Conference is taking place September 10-12 in Boston, MA. This event, which takes place once every five years, will be a great opportunity to learn more about how to bring fair trade goods to your community, meet fair trade artisans and farmers, and network with people who care about justice and the environment. Enough for Everyone will be organizing a gathering of Presbyterians at the conference, and has some scholarship assistance available for interested Presbyterians.
