NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
October 1, 2004
For more information contact
Brenda Meier at (410) 230-2801.
In this news release:
- Our Fair Trade Cup Runneth Over:
Lutherans Rise To The 90-Ton Challenge
- Other Fair Trade News From Lutheran World Relief
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OUR FAIR TRADE CUP RUNNETH OVER:
LUTHERANS RISE TO THE CHALLENGE
Baltimore, October 1, 2004 – 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 today.
“The traditional Lutheran coffee hour on Sunday mornings has long been a source of fellowship for Lutherans,” said Brenda Meier, who coordinates the LWR Coffee Project. “Now we are joining together to support fair trade coffee. It’s creating a sense of unity among us—not just within our individual parishes, but throughout the Lutheran Church.”
Pour Justice to the Brim: The 90-Ton Challenge was a joint effort of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Women of the ELCA, and Equal Exchange, LWR’s partner in the LWR Coffee Project. The yearlong campaign was created to double the 45 tons of fairly traded coffee Lutherans purchased through the LWR Coffee Project in the year preceding the 90-Ton Challenge launch.
More than 4,300 Lutheran parishes and organizations and countless households from coast to coast were involved in the successful 90-Ton Challenge. The objective of the Challenge was to unite Lutherans in creating awareness and support for fair trade in the United States.
Fair trade means quality of life for farmers
“Fair trade offers small-scale coffee farmers an alternative to the conventional systems that put them at the mercy of corporations and middlemen who buy the coffee for well below the farmers’ costs of production,” Meier said.
Through the fair trade system, farmer cooperatives pool their small coffee harvests into enough coffee that they can sell directly to a fair trade buyer, which was Equal Exchange in this project. Equal Exchange, which is committed to fair trade on 100 percent of its products, has been a leader in the fair trade movement in the United States since 1986.
“Through fair trade, farmers receive a guaranteed fair price for their crop, and in turn are able to provide for their families’ needs and contribute to the overall well-being of their communities,” Meier said.
Examples she gave included:
- In Tanzania farmers used some of their fair trade coffee proceeds to run electricity to their village health clinic so it could stock refrigerated medicines.
- Nicaraguan coffee farmers are getting training in environmentally friendly organic and shade cultivation, terracing, soil conservation, and crop diversification.
- Coffee-growing farmers in El Salvador are helping to fund the improvement of local roads and transportation services.
Lutherans and coffee: a perfect combination
Fair trade offers Lutheran coffee drinkers benefits as well, Meier said. “U.S. Lutherans are gaining a better understanding of the global importance of fair trade and our role as Christian consumers. We see that we can have a real impact when we accept a common goal and work toward it together.”
Meier gives much of the success of the 90-Ton Challenge to the unflagging support of one important group.
“Women of the ELCA have long been key partners for Lutheran World Relief. Women of the ELCA helped the LWR Coffee Project get off the ground in 1997, and they again have made a huge contribution by helping to raise LWR’s fair trade work to a new level through their magazine, Lutheran Woman Today.”
Nancy Goldberger, editor of Lutheran Woman Today, was instrumental in starting the 90-Ton Challenge, Meier said.
“Nancy traveled to El Salvador as part of an Equal Exchange delegation where she stayed with a coffee farmer and his family learning about their challenges and hopes,” she added. “When she returned to the U.S., she approached us with her desire to engage the readers of the magazine in supporting fair trade.”
The 90-Ton Challenge was first announced in the magazine’s October 2003 issue, and it quickly gained the enthusiasm and imagination of large numbers of other Lutherans, Meier said.
For example, at the request of the Northeastern Minnesota Synodical Women's Organization (SWO), the University of Minnesota’s Duluth campus dining services served fair trade coffee at the SWO’s annual convention there.
“In fact, during the convention, everyone who ate at the campus dining services was served fair trade coffee, generating many comments about how much better the coffee had become,” Meier said.
And students at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, hosted a successful LWR Fair Trade Fair in December. One of the event’s coordinators, Katie Pence, said “We thought it would be a great way to give people an opportunity to purchase goods made and produced by artisans and farmers around the world with the proceeds benefiting them directly.”
Also during the 90-Ton Challenge, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod added their support to the LWR Coffee Project by switching to fair trade coffee in their churchwide headquarters.
Beyond the 90-Ton Challenge
Although the 90-Ton Challenge far exceeded the expectations, the true success will come in the months and years following it, said Meier. U.S. Lutherans, their friends and families must continue to buy and use fair trade coffee and thus “continue to support justice for small-scale farmers in developing nations.”
LWR will continue its long-term commitment to engage even more Lutherans in supporting fair trade and equip them to invite others to participate, she said. It is planning to expand its fair trade work with new educational resources, appearances at events, workshops and Web-based information to help Lutherans and others know more about fair trade.
“Nearly 4,300 Lutheran congregations are part of the LWR Coffee Project,” said Meier. “But there are more than 17,000 Lutheran congregations in the United States, so there still is great potential for Lutheran involvement in the fair trade movement.”
Goldberger added: “We have to continue to build on the success of the 90-Ton Challenge because we see the good things we can do together as Lutherans and as partners in fair trade with the people who produce coffee on small farms. It is a joy-full relationship.”
The December issue of Lutheran Woman Today will celebrate the success of the 90-Ton Challenge with features about the coffee farmers who are benefiting from the success of the LWR Coffee Project and highlights from some of the Lutherans who contributed to the Challenge’s success.
Beyond coffee, Lutheran World Relief also advocates for other fair trade products through the LWR Handcraft Project and the LWR Chocolate Project. Visit lwr.org/fairtrade or call 1-800-LWR-LWR-2 for more information.
OTHER FAIR TRADE NEWS FROM LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF:
Coffee farmer tour in Minnesota celebrates the 90-Ton Challenge
To celebrate the success of the 90-Ton Challenge, Sinforosa Contreras Cardenas, a member of the San Fernando Cooperative in Peru, will join Lutheran World Relief and Equal Exchange on a four-day tour through Minnesota later this month. Cardenas will speak to Lutherans who have supported fair trade through the LWR Coffee Project as part of a larger tour being sponsored by Equal Exchange. The details of the October 21-25 tour are still in development. Visit lwr.org/coffee for details as they are finalized.
Coffee from the Roof of Africa
In November, fourteen Women of the ELCA participants will join staff from Lutheran World Relief and Equal Exchange in Tanzania to meet the growers of Tanzanian Jubilee coffee, one of the most popular coffees in the LWR Coffee Project. The group’s online diary will be featured on LWR’s website at lwr.org/study beginning November 3. Also, read about their fair trade adventure in the April 2005 issue of Lutheran Woman Today.
Harvest Coffee in Nicaragua on an LWR Study Visit
Higher Education students, faculty, and administrators are once again invited to feel fair trade with their own hands as they pick the ripe red cherries—each containing two precious coffee beans—side by side with Nicaraguan coffee farmers. The LWR Study Visit, “Coffee With A Conscience,” will depart during the heart of coffee harvest season in Central America, January 2-13, 2005. Participants will meet with a variety of voices for and against fair trade, then return to home campuses with their own conclusions and an action plan.
A second trip is designed especially for parish leaders for late January 2005. Planning is coordinated with the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College, a leader in experiential learning, and Equal Exchange, LWR’s partner in the LWR Coffee Project.
Applications are being accepted now. For more information on either trip, visit lwr.org/study or contact Terri Speirs, LWR study visit coordinator, at tspeirs@lwr.org or 651-523-1630.
LWR Handcraft Project catalogs available
The 2004-2005 LWR Handcraft Project catalog began distribution in mid-September. To request a free copy of the full-color catalog featuring more than 750 fairly traded products, call 1-888-294-9660. Ten percent of all purchases made from the LWR Handcraft Project catalog is donated to support Lutheran World Relief’s work around the world. The LWR Handcraft Project is a partnership of Lutheran World Relief and SERRV International. Visit lwr.org/handcraft to learn more.
Le Thi Tuyet Ha is thinking about the holidays…are you?
Le Thi Tuyet Ha, a 33-year-old artisan of Mai Handicrafts in Vietnam, supports her mother with the money she earns from the sale of her jute mats through the LWR Handcraft Project. A colorful holiday jute doormat made by the artisans of Mai Handicrafts is featured in the 2004-2005 LWR Handcraft Project catalog.
Lutherans can help Le Thi and other artisans by hosting an LWR Fair Trade Fair featuring fairly traded handcrafts from around the world. Every sale benefits the artisans who create these products—and your parish and community members get high-quality, beautiful and unique crafts. Call 1-888-294-9660 to request a no-obligation LWR Fair Trade Fair information packet, which includes a copy of the 2004-2005 LWR Handcraft Project catalog.
White chocolate added to LWR Chocolate Project product line
The LWR Chocolate Project starts its second year with the addition of a white chocolate bar. Each 3.5-ounce bar is made with fair trade cocoa butter, which comes from cocoa beans grown by Kuapa Kokoo, a 45,000 member, farmer-owned cocoa cooperative in Ghana. Fair trade premiums help to build wells, fund education and provide mobile medical units for the cocoa-growing communities.
Not only do these farmers receive fair trade premiums for their cocoa beans, they are part owners of the Day Chocolate Company, which manufacturers the chocolate bars. Ownership means dignity and respect for the farmers by giving them direct involvement in the business decisions made about their cocoa. And, as part owners, they share in any of the chocolate company’s profits. The Day Chocolate Company is the first farmer-owned chocolate company in the world.
The white chocolate bars are available in cases of ten bars each. To order, call 1-888-294-9660 or visit the LWR Chocolate Project webstore at lwr.org/chocolate. The LWR Chocolate Project is a partnership of Lutheran World Relief and SERRV International.
