Fair Trade Gathering over Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream

After weeks of rainy days, the sun came up strong and bright for our meeting with Elizabeth Killough, chair of the Media Fair Trade Town Committee, and David Rosenberg, generous donor of the Laboratory for Civic Engagement. Over lunch, we discussed  the inspiring origins of the fair trade movement in Media and talked about ways to sustain and expand awareness in the coming years.

The interesting thing about fair trade, said Killough, is that “it is something that appeals to everyone across the spectrum.”

Dr. Laura Guertin with Elizabeth Killough

The conversation took on a whole new dynamic as lunch turned into a Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream social, which was part of the celebration for our winning the nationwide Go Bananas for Fair Trade campaign. Students that had helped with Fair Trade events in the fall semester (the Alta Gracia t-shirt swap and bananas) were treated to free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Director of the Penn State Brandywine Laboratory for Civic Engagement, Dr. Laura Guertin, assembled this incredible pyramid of fair trade greatness, composed of 18 delicious fair trade flavors of Ben & Jerry’s. She even created fresh whipped cream with fair trade sugar to top off our dessert creations!

Ice-cream has a special way of bringing everyone together, and between scoops, we not only talked about the social issues surrounding the fair trade movement and its impact on communities internationally, but also on Ben & Jerry’s trailblazing path to a more just world. The company truly stands as a model for other influential corporations to follow.

Senior and Fair Trade Intern for Media’s Fair Trade Town Committee, Aimee Ralph, enjoys her bowl of Ben & Jerry’s

Overall, the celebration was quite a success and each of us departed, brimming with enthusiasm for future fair trade events!

Contributed by Labanya Mookerjee, Fair Trade Intern

Ben & Jerry’s switch to international FAIRTRADE Certification Mark

Ben & Jerry’s has been a strong supporter of fair trade and is adding fair trade ingredients, such as vanilla, chocolate, and sugar, to more of their flavors.  Ben & Jerry’s even has a Fairtrade page online (website).  With the questions/discussions/frustrations swirling around fair trade certifiers, does this recent move get us closer to “whirled” peace?

HEADLINE:  Ben & Jerry’s Fortifies Farmer Focus with Faritrade Effort
Ice cream maker solidifies its commitment with Fairtrade International’s US Headquarters, Fairtrade International USA

Sine Fairtrade International USA (website) has established themselves in the United States, the Fair Trade USA “bucket boy” logo has been disappearing on products such as Divine Chocolate, and now Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.  Does it make a difference who certifies Ben & Jerry’s ice cream?  Does it taste any different, or do you feel any different eating the ice cream under a different certifier?  The answers to these questions are all personal and individual, but we think everyone agrees that the commitment to fair trade is a priority and should be a priority for more companies that have the power to make a difference.

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

Making Thanksgiving Desserts Fair Trade

Every year for Thanksgiving, my husband makes two desserts from scratch that he brings to the family Thanksgiving feast.  Fortunately, because he has been brought up to speed on the impact of his purchasing Fair Trade products, he didn’t blink at all at my suggestion he swap some of his standard ingredient purchases for Fair Trade food items.  One dessert was a White and Dark Chocolate Ice Box Cake (including Green & Black’s Organic White Chocolate and 72% Dark Baking Chocolate).  But here, I’d like to share his other creation.

Espresso-Chocolate Speckle Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar (he used Woodstock’s Organic Powdered Sugar)
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
12 large egg whites
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar (he used Wholesome Sweeteners Organic & Fair Trade Sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (he used Frontier Vanilla Flavor)
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder (unfortunately, we could not find any Fair Trade instant varieties!)
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (he used Divine 85% Dark Chocolate), grated on the fine holes of a hand grater, or in a rotary grater
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted as a chocolate drizzle (again, Divine Chocolate)

STEP ONE:  Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.  Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray (notice we used a cake pan with a cathedral design).

STEP TWO:  Sift the cake flour and confectioners’ sugar together onto a piece of waxed paper three times; set aside.

STEP THREE:  In the 4 and 1/2 quart bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer, using the wire whip attachment, beat the egg whites at medium speed until frothy.  Add the cream of tartar and beat at high speed, adding the sugar gradually, until the whites are glossy and stiff, but not dry.  Add the vanilla and espresso powder and continue mixing until just incorporated.  Scrape the mixture into a large bowl.

STEP FOUR:  In three batches, resift the flour/sugar mixture over the whites and gently fold in with a large rubber spatula until just combined.  Gently fold in the grated chocolate until combined.  Scrape the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan.  Using a knife, loosen the cake form the pan.  Let sit on a cake rack for 5 minutes and invert onto another cake rack.  Allow the cake to cool completely before glazing.

STEP FIVE:  To garnish the cake, dip a fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle the glaze over the top and sides of the cake.

STEP SIX:  Enjoy!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

“Go Bananas for Fair Trade” Event

On October 9 and 10, we held our “Go Bananas for Fair Trade” event on our campus. On Tuesday and Wednesday we gave out Equal Exchange Fair Trade bananas in front of the Lion statue. with the help of Professor Olear’s BA 100 (Introduction to Business) students. After two days of standing in the rain we gave out all 611 of our bananas. Thanks to the Fair Trade Town committee in Media who assisted us with securing the donation of all of the bananas.

On Thursday and Friday of the same week, the staff in the cafeteria baked up some delicious Fair Trade banana pancakes and muffin specials, and sold 55 of them. We have submitted our numbers in Fair Trade Towns USA, and are now waiting to see if we won the”Go Bananas for Fair Trade” challenge. If we win, Penn State Brandywine can select to receive free Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for a year! So keep your fingers crossed for us.

Here is a picture of our beautiful setup for the banana hand out.

And here are our two awesome banana suits that worked really hard to give out bananas.

Contributed by Louis Donaghue, Fair Trade Intern

How to host a “Go Bananas for Fair Trade” event on a college campus

The “Go Bananas for Fair Trade” event at Penn State Brandywine, a nationwide campaign organized by Fair Trade Towns USA, was a huge success! As we continue on our journey as a Fair Trade University, we continue to work this fall semester toward raising awareness of the Fair Trade movement on campus, specifically with the first-year students, staff and faculty. On October 9-10, 2012, we hosted an event where campus and community members could come to campus and receive a FREE Fair Trade banana, information about the different Fair Trade labels, and take a Fair Trade banana quiz on an iPad. Be sure to read about the lead up to our event and the resulting success! We hope that our experience can help other campuses learn how to best host a Fair Trade banana event!

For starters, we consulted the Go Bananas website and found their Resources page for setting up a banana event. This was very helpful! But there were some other considerations we had to make, especially doing this event on a college campus.

Here are a few of the important lessons we learned about “Going Bananas” on campus:

1. Get permission first! We CANNOT stress this enough!  Our campus has rules with regards to food and food service on campus, and we are sure yours does as well.  Some schools may require that all food be ordered and/or served through your dining services on campus.  We received permission from the business office on campus to obtain the Fair Trade bananas from off campus and to distribute them.
2. Get the word out. As the Go Bananas campaign ran the first two weeks of October, this was far enough into the fall semester so we were not still trying to get the semester under way.  We used our campus’s social media sites our own social media sites, as well as the template from the Go Bananas website to create 11×17 inch posters with the banana logo/template.  Our local town’s Fair Trade committee was kind enough to include us in an announcement sent to our local paper.  It worked!  In a two-day period, we were able to distribute all of our bananas.
3. Consider running the event for more than one day. We scheduled the event over two days, as we are a commuter campus and some of our students are only on campus Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, while other students are only on campus Tuesdays/Thursdays. By having the event over two days, we were able to reach as many student across our campus population as possible.
4. Expand your volunteer base – connect with a faculty member/course. Early in the semester, we had a faculty member that teachers Introduction to Business ask if her students could help out with the Go Bananas event.  This was a first for the Fair Trade TrailBlazers, having a faculty member be proactive in contacting us and getting her students involved.  We decided that after we secured the bananas, we would let the business students RUN the event!  This was a great opportunity for us to spread the Fair Trade message to 40 first-semester freshmen in the course and to grow our volunteer base.  These students have been asking more and more questions about Fair Trade, and we bet we are going to see them at our future events!
5. Purchase more bananas than you think you will need. We actually ran out of bananas before the second day of the event was complete.  Our original plan was to just distribute one banana per student/staff/faculty member, but we couldn’t say “no” to the handful of students that asked for bananas and flyers to provide to family members (again, we are a commuter campus where most of our students still live with their families).  This provided us an opportunity to spread the “fair trade” message beyond campus!
6. Think about jazzing up your bananas with additional ingredients. We wanted to do chocolate-covered bananas, but we couldn’t figure out how to have warm, melted Fair Trade chocolate in the location we were doing the event for people to dunk their bananas in.  We saw some photos online of other universities doing some innovative slicing of bananas and pouring chocolate and sprinkles on top – what fun!  We think taking our event to the next level with more “trimmings” next time will bring a new twist for us the next time, to bring more people back for more bananas.
7. Choose a good time, overlap with the breakfast/lunch hours. We set our event at 10AM to 1PM both days, so that people could grab a banana between our morning classes and when they arrived on campus.  Don’t be concerned if you don’t have a large group right when you begin, as people will filter in during the event – most likely, as we say, different students in the morning than over the lunch hour.
8. Choose a good location on campus.  Typically, most groups on our campus set up tables to promote events right outside the doors of the building that has our cafeteria and athletic center.  We decided to set up outdoors in the center of campus, right next to our Lion Shrine statue.  This allowed us to be visible as students left most of our academic buildings between classes, and we could “spread out” and direct people walking on sidewalks to walk over to our display to grab a banana.  We certainly feel that location, location, location really mattered!
9. Have a backup plan for bad weather.  We booked an indoor location to give out the bananas, in case of really bad weather.  Well, it actually ended up raining BOTH days of our event, but a little wet weather kept us outside and our energy was not dampened – we still had a successful event!  The only part we were disappointed with was that because of the rain, not many students stayed by our tables outside to eat their banana, they went inside instead.
10. Have a banana costume (or two). We had two banana costumes (Halloween costumes) available for students to wear.  At first, we were not sure if anyone would wear the costume, but then it turned out we had more students that wanted to wear the costumes than we could manage!  Having very energetic students willing to go around campus in the costumes really helped pull people over to our tables and added alot of fun to the activity.  We were a popular spot for photos!
11. Include an education component. We gave out a half-page flyer with every banana that provided some websites that talked about Fair Trade bananas and a list of where Fair Trade bananas can be purchased locally.  We also included an information table (pictured below) with samples of products and another handout listing the different Fair Trade certification labels and describing what these labels mean.  We even created a banana quiz for people to take on the iPad, which provided a fun way to bring technology and an interactive activity to the event.
12. Include an advocacy component. Our original plan was to have a petition for our students to sign to get our campus dining services to serve Fair Trade bananas – but, as it turned out, they started serving Fair Trade bananas the week we had our event.  We’re thrilled that they are STILL serving Fair Trade bananas, and we hope this lasts the entire academic year.
13. Be environmentally responsible – compost those banana peels.  We checked with the head of our campus landscaping, and it turns out he has two compost piles on campus.  He was more than willing to provide a wheel barrel for us to collect the banana peels so he could compost them (see photo).  This was a nice addition to our event and our campus environmental mission.
14. Take lots of photos, and share the results. We took pictures and tweeted them during the event and posted a collection of photos in our flickr account after the banana event.  It’s a great way to document what we did and to share the results with others.  We hope the conversation continues and people are inspired to try their own event after seeing and reading what we did!

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

Fair Trade Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Alright so this Saturday my girlfriend and I decided to bake up some glorious Fair Trade pumpkin bread. Now before we get started, there is no such thing as Fair Trade pumpkins. But a good number of general baking ingredients are made under Fair Trade standards. We found all of our Fair Trade ingredients at the local Whole Foods store. This recipe makes about two large loaves.

Ingredients

• 3 cups white Fair Trade sugar*
• 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. Fair Trade vanilla extract*
• 3.5 cups of all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 9 oz. bag of Fair Trade chocolate chips*
• 2 tsp. ground Fair Trade cinnamon*
• 1 tsp. Fair Trade nutmeg*
• 1 tsp. salt

* =Fair Trade

Step 1

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, and grease two large bread pans.

Step 2

In a large bowl, mix sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs together. Then add in everything else except the chocolate chips. Beat until smooth. Then fold in chocolate chips.

Step 3

Pour mix evenly into the two greased pans. Put the pans in the oven for 1 hour, and enjoy a few of your favorite pumpkin beers while you wait.

Step 4

Make sure the loaves are cooked all of the way through. If they are not done cooking just put them back in the oven for five or ten minutes. When you know they are done cooking, leave them in the pan to cool for a while before touching them.

If you did everything right they should look like this! Hope you enjoy this easy Fair Trade recipe.

Contributed by Louis Donaghue, Fair Trade Intern

 

Hershey Announces 100% Certification by 2020!

That’s right you read correctly, Hershey has announced that they plan to be 100% Fair Trade certified by the year 2020, and that by next year they should have one of their top name brands certified. For years the Raise The Bar, Hershey! campaign has been actively pressuring the chocolate company to reevaluate their child slavery practices and work towards a more ethical system.

Hershey stated that they will make this change in small increments over the next eight years, but did not address how they will do this or what certifications they seek to gain.While there is still a lot to question about Hershey’s statement, this is definitley a victory for Raise The Bar, Hershey!

Read the article here http://www.raisethebarhershey.org/raise-the-bar-hershey-campaign-welcomes-hershey%E2%80%99s-announcement-to-source-100-certified-cocoa-by-2020/

Contributed by Louis Donaghue, Fair Trade Intern

 

Ten Thousand Villages hosts a Going Bananas Cook-Off

As part of the Go Bananas for Fair Trade campaign, Ten Thousand Villages on State Street in Media, PA, will be hosting a Going Bananas Cook-Off!  During “Second Saturday,” October 13, bakers/chefs are asked to bring their Fair Trade banana creation, made with at least two additional Fair Trade items, to the Ten Thousand Villages store on State Street before 12:30PM.  All entries will be judged between 1PM and 4PM by the staff and store customers based on use of fair trade ingredients, presentation, creativity, and taste.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/439024039472963/

To find Fair Trade bananas locally, please visit Whole Foods, Swarthmore Co-op, or Martindale’s Natural Market in Springfield.  Most Sam’s Clubs in Pennsylvania and Delaware also sell Fair Trade bananas.

 

 

At the “local” Noodles & Company – China Mist Iced Teas

This is a post our Penn State followers in State College will enjoy!  This summer, during one of my trips to State College, I noticed a Noodles & Company under construction and getting ready to open at the intersection of College Ave and Burrowes Street.  Seeing as the only Noodles & Company in Pennsylvania is in Pittsburgh, I’m excited this restaurant is moving across the state.  One of my former students, Abbey Dufoe, the first student to do an independent study on Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine (now she’s at the University Park campus), told me that she was able to score a ticket to a pre-opening party to sample some of the food.  While she was feasting on her pasta, she sent me this DM in Twitter:

Leave it to Abbey, always having her eye out for Fair Trade items!  I asked her what brand the beverage is, and she tweeted back:

This is a brand I’m not familiar with, and there is nothing on the Noodles & Company website about serving Fair Trade items.  I wonder where else this beverage exists, especially in southeast PA.  But it is nice for us to now be aware of another Fair Trade beverage, China Mist Iced Tea.  If you spot this brand, please post a comment and let us know!

- Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

Weis Market has (limited) Fair Trade food items

Recently, a local grocery store closed and a new Weis Market opened in its place (you can find it on our Google Map in Conshohocken).  I remember shopping at Weis when I was an undergraduate student at Bucknell University in central PA, but I had not seen one here in southeastern PA.  So, I decided to check it out to look for – of course – Fair Trade food items on the shelves!

At first, I was disappointed – I didn’t see any Fair Trade certified bananas, baking chocolate chips, or tea.  Finally, I turned down an aisle and I see this:

Not only did I see the Fair Trade logo that I had been looking for, but it was on a store brand!  Then, I came across some Green Mountain K-cups, Honest Tea, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Larabar bars, and Green & Black’s organic chocolate.  The selection of Fair Trade food items is probably the most limited I have seen in an area grocery store, but at least there are some Fair Trade items on the shelves.  Hopefully, in the near future, Weis Markets will be proud of their Fair Trade products, do a better job promoting the ones they have, and add even more for consumers to purchase.

- Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

 

Fair Trade Ingredients Creme Brulee

As promised at the start of summer, we made Fair Trade Ingredient Creme Brulee!

For this recipe I made 4 ramekins of creme brulee.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups of heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
• 3 large egg yolks

I have used a few creme brulee recipes in the past, and have made up my own way of concocting creme brulee as I work with a temperamental oven. If your oven behaves itself, then check out this recipe for better cooking directions.

As the recipe above suggested, I added the yolks and the sugar together. However, I like to do things a little bit differently when adding the vanilla. I put 1/4 of the vanilla in with the egg and sugar mixture, and 1/4 in with the heavy whipping cream while bringing it to a broil. I started doing that for the Vegan Chai Cupcakes to enhance the flavor of the Vanilla Soy Milk I use, and it’s a habit that I’ve held onto, though it is not necessary for the creme brulee recipe. I stirred the sugar, vanilla, and yolks together until it was creamy and appeared a little bit darker in color (a darker orange).

After the egg mixture was taken care of, I poured the heavy cream into a small saucepan (though if you are making more creme brulee I would suggest a medium sauce pan) and stirred it continuously for 3-4 minutes. I took the cream off of the stove just before it began to broil. I then poured the cream into the egg mixture a little bit at a time, stirring it together as I did so.

I then put the ramekins into a roasting pan and filled the pan with water. The water should go halfway up the sides of the ramekins, and this ensures that the creme cooks evenly. I cooked the creme at about 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Most recipes I have seen suggest cooking creme brulee anywhere from 250-350 degrees for 25-45 minutes. Depending on your kind of oven. the temperature and time may vary, though I would suggest about 300-325 degrees for 30-40 minutes. The general rule of thumb is to make sure that creme is set and firm. I will usually slide the roasting pan out and gently poke the creme with a spoon to see if it’s ready. A little bit of wiggle in the center of the creme is okay, as the creme will continue to firm up when you put it in the refrigerator, but you don’t want a lot of wiggle.

After the creme brulee has finished cooking, take it out of the oven and let it sit in the bath and cool for 30 minutes or so. Once the 30 minutes are up, wrap the ramekins up in cling wrap and put them in the fridge. I like to give the creme four hours or so to finish firming up, though four hours isn’t a requirement. The recipe I listed above says two hours, and that works as well.

When you are ready to torch the creme, spread a thin layer of sugar over top of the creme. I use a cooking torch to melt the sugar, and I make sure to keep the flame moving. Don’t let it hover over one area of sugar too long, as it melts and burns quickly.

For our Fair Trade Ingredients, I used my favorite Wholesome Sweetener Organic Fair Trade Sugar and Frontier’s Organic Fair Trade Vanilla Extract .

Because Wholesome Sweetener’s Organic Fair Trade Sugar is a little bit coarse, I put the 1 1/4 cups into a food blender to make it finer.

My brother kindly showing off the creme brulee!

The finished product!

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

Going Bananas with Social Media

Wednesday (August 15, 2012) evening, Fair Trade Towns USA hosted a webinar about their Go Bananas Challenge and went over some tips for effectively using social media for spreading Fair Trade awareness during Fair Trade Month in October and during the rest of the year.

We were particularly interested in the Go Bananas Challenge portion of the webinar, as the TrailBlazers are hoping to participate and host some events on campus, but the discussion on social media tips turned out to be just as helpful. Fair Trade Towns USA pointed out a Tool Kit  they have on their website for brainstorming ideas for events, hosting events, and a wealth of other information.  Our plan, at this point, is to do something with Fair Trade Banana splits (can you imagine… Fair Trade Bananas, Fair Trade ice cream, and Fair Trade chocolate sauce!), though we are still muddling through some logistics and other ideas. We’ll post more about  our exact plans closer to October (and after we meet with our food vendor on campus), but the webinar got us thinking about what events might be doable, how do we want to educate our campus population, who we should be contacting, etc. We hope that the Tool Kit above is as helpful for everyone else as it was for us!

But, the point we are most eager to share and blog about is actually the social media aspect of the webinar. Obviously, the TrailBlazers have been very much active in the social media world, and we are always looking for tips and ways to improve our outreach. We found two points in particular to be helping, but for the full guideline list, click here .

One point that really stuck out to us was food. Food posts and photos are some of the more popular topics in the world of social media. A significant chunk of the hits and likes on our own website have been for our food events and recipes, and we had wondered for a while if this was just a phenomena we were experiencing or if it was a common occurrence in the wider community.  Fair Trade Towns USA confirmed that food is a hot-button topic on the internet, and people love to look at food and talk about food. Luckily, when talking about Fair Trade, food comes up often, so sharing food related posts is easy and a great way to get people engaged. As budding social media users, all of us TrailBlazers recommend adding some food flair now and again to get people’s attention.

Fair Trade Towns USA also talked about the power of a positive post. Positive posts get more retweets and shares than negative posts, and in the world of Fair Trade, shining the movement in the best light is important for keeping consumers and the general public feeling good about Fair Trade.

We especially liked these points because they can easily be tied into the Go Bananas Challenge. In addition to hosting events, we need to effectively get the word out there, and social media has been a wonderful tool for getting people aware of what we’re doing and involved. Getting our campus involved with food while educating on the positive impacts of Fair Trade bananas will hopefully get more of our community (and the wider community!) involved with Fair Trade.

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

Celebrating Ethical Chocolate with S’mores at Penn State Brandywine

Today (August 16, 2012) the Fair Trade TrailBlazers and the Penn State Brandywine Community participated in Global Exchange’s “We Want More from our S’mores” event.  This initiative was started by Global Exchange to put pressure on the chocolate industry to stop using child labor and to continue to seek more ethical means of producing chocolate (see our previous post for more details). From 12:30 to 1:30, faculty, staff, and students gathered in the Vairo Library courtyard and made Fair Trade S’mores to help Global Exchange’s campaign.  Fair Trade Equal Exchange chocolate (the dark mini bars) was provided as well as Fair Trade Bananas from Whole Foods. Yes, you read correctly. Fair Trade Bananas! These were not just any Fair Trade S’mores, but gourmet Fair Trade S’mores. In addition to jumbo sized marshmallows and boxes and boxes of graham crackers, organic strawberries were provided (sadly not Fair Trade. All the more reason why we need a domestic Fair Trade system). By the end of the event, 40 people attended, 45 s’mores were eaten, and 25 people signed the We Want More from Our S’mores petition. It was truly a wonderful and successful event!

Here are some photos from this afternoon!

Here are all of the lovely ingredients we used in our Fair Trade S’mores!

A completed S’more.

Here we have a group of students and faculty toasting some marshmallows.

TrailBlazer Jack Ramaika enjoys a Fair Trade S’more!

Fair Trade Intern and TrailBlazer Sarah DeMartino talks to the crowd about the controversy in the Chocolate Industry and the importance of the “We Want More from our S’mores” event.

Louis Donaghue (TrailBlazer and Fall Fair Trade Intern), Jack Ramaika (TrailBlazer), and Sarah DeMartino (TrailBlazer and Summer Fair Trade Intern) pose for a photo during the event.

So Many S’mores eaten!

To see more photos, check out our Flickr page!

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

A Question about Chocolate

It’s question time! So, Dr. Laura Guertin and I were in Wegmans grocery store today, shopping for our campus fair trade s’mores event tomorrow, and we were wondering about some missing food labels. In our mad dash around the store, we came across Hershey’s Bliss chocolate, but found no Rainforest Alliance label on the packaging (Dove chocolates, we discovered on accident, does have a brand of chocolate that is Rainforest Alliance certified).  To our understanding, Bliss chocolate is Rainforest Alliance certified, so why wouldn’t the labeling appear on packaging? Has anybody seen Bliss chocolates with the labeling, or does anybody know why the label wouldn’t be included?

Our second question came up in the international section of Wegmans. I had spotted UK Cadbury  chocolates the other week and wanted to check out their Fair Trade label. However, just like Bliss, I couldn’t find a Fair Trade label for the UK Cadbury milk chocolate bars. If the bars are really from the UK and are the right brand of chocolate, why wouldn’t the label appear on the packaging?

Has anybody else out there had any similar questions? Does anybody know what is going on with these labels?

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

Seeking Ethical Chocolate – A Fair Trade S’more Event!

The chocolate industry has been a growing point of controversy and change. An awareness of how chocolate is made and who makes it has stirred the need to move the industry in a more positive and humane direction.  Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa, and it is estimated that around 1.8 million children are working on cocoa farms. In a study conducted (additional article) by Tulane University, it was determined that some of the children are working in very poor and often dangerous conditions, sustaining injuries, and some have been trafficked onto these farms (additional article).

There has been an outcry for the chocolate industry to end child labor from many different organizations and groups. Some major chocolate companies involved with child labor are Mars, Cadbury, Nestle, and Hershey, and there has been some movement from each of these companies to mitigate the issue.

Mars has promised to be child-labor free by 2020 and is working with the U.S. Department of Labor and the International Labour Organization to understand the complexities of child labor and find “…more effective strategies to combat trafficking…”.

Britain’s popular Cadbury  has also taken steps to promote a more ethical chocolate industry and became Fair Trade (additional article), putting Fair Trade certified chocolate on store shelves back in 2010 .

Nestle partnered with the Fair Labor Association to identify if they have child laborers working under them and hopes to resolve any child labor issues they may have been supporting.

Hershey’s chocolate has also begun to take steps to amend its business practices. Hershey has agreed to sell “Bliss” chocolate, a Rainforest Alliance certified chocolate bar. It has also pledged $10 million over the next five years to help educate farmers in West Africa and improve their trade to fight child labor. As America’s biggest chocolate producer, Hershey is under a lot of  pressure to continue to make steps toward fighting child labor. On June 12, 2012, leaders from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Global Exchange, Green America, the International Labor Rights Forum, and the National Guestworker Alliance, called for Hershey to step up and make reforms for its chocolate production and “…ongoing use of abusive child labor…”.

The “We Want more from our S’Mores” event was started by Global Exchange on July 4, 2012 to further encourage Hershey to move in a more ethical direction. The event calls for making Fair Trade ingredient s’mores and runs until Labor Day. For more information about having your own event, click here.

The Penn State Brandywine TrailBlazers will be participating in this event to promote a more ethical chocolate system, and hopes to not only encourage Hershey to continue to grow and expand its effort to fight child labor, but the rest of the chocolate industry as well. Our event will be held 12:30PM on Thursday August 16, 2012, in the Vairo Building Courtyard on the Penn State Brandywine campus. If you would like to attend for some additional discussion and to create your own Fair Trade s’more (or two, or three, or four…), please RSVP here!

UPDATE: Article on Change.org on National S’more Day: Make Yours Fair Trade (08/10/2012)

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

Now advertising – Honest Tea

I was watching TV a few weeks ago and did a double-take when this commercial came on:

Honest Tea!  I first became aware of Honest Tea when our campus began its journey to become a Fair Trade University.  I started noticing the product in local grocery stores with the “bucket boy” Fair Trade logo (which, by the way, Honest Tea is staying with Fair Trade USA certification).  And I was really disappointed that I couldn’t make it to NYC in April for The Great Recycle event – I applaud their efforts for awareness and action when it comes to recycling the bottles the tea comes in.  But I had never seen any advertising for Honest Tea – until this TV commercial appeared.  And not only has Honest Tea released its first television commercial, I saw a billboard today in Philadelphia for Honest Tea.

The advertising does not focus on the teas that feature Fair Trade ingredients, but all the bottles I have seen in the commercial and on the billboards show bottles with the Fair Trade logo.  I wonder if this will increase purchases of the Fair Trade varieties?  It would be great to see a mention or focus on the Fair Trade line of Honest Tea in this new advertising campaign – it seems that Honest Tea is missing an opportunity to inform consumers what this icon means on the bottle and what it means to the global community.

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

 

Celebrating Bastille Day with Media and Cupcakes

This past Saturday, July 14, 2012, the Penn State Brandywine Fair Trade TrailBlazers were excited to join the town of Media in its Bastille Day celebrations. The whole of State Street closed down so that booths could set up and restaurants could set out extra seating. The event kicked off at around 6:30 in the evening with an awards ceremony and a reenactment of the storming of the Bastille. Media presented Penn State Brandywine with a Regional Fair Trade award, and we were honored to accept the award! We also congratulate the other Fair Trade award winners on an awesome job and well done!

We also participated in Ten Thousand Villages in Media’s Fair Trade cooking competition, “Knock Their Block Off,” submitting my famous Fair Trade Vanilla Vegan Chai Cupcakes! Four other contestants entered the competition. Take a look at all of the yummy entries!

Below, you will find some other photos from the event.

Above are Bastille Day actors setting up the main stage at the intersection of State and Olive Streets in Media.

Here we are, Dr. Laura Guertin, Sarah DeMartino, and Louis Donaghue accepting the regional award from Media!

And here are all of us after the award!

Here was something cool we saw! At the Fair Trade (run by Media’s Fair Trade Town Committee) information desk, there was a clothesline with Fair Trade messages hung on it. People could come up and write or draw what Fair Trade meant to them!

All in all, we had a wonderfully fun time in Media and can’t wait for their next event!

For more images of Media’s Bastille day, check out our Flickr page!

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, First Fair Trade Intern

A Call To Arms (Or Spatulas): Fair Trade Media Cook-Off

On July 14 the town of Media will be having its “Knock Their Block Off” Fair Trade cooking competition, and Penn State Brandywine is pleased to say that it will be participating. Registration opens up on July 7, and runs until July 11. I, Sarah DeMartino, the infamous Fair Trade Vegan-Chai Cupcake Chef and TrailBlazer, will be participating and representing my Penn State Brandywine community!  I am eager to share my recipe and see what other fabulous entries are submitted!

The event is hosted by Ten Thousand Villages in Media, and all entries must be submitted to the store between noon and 2 p.m. Judging will start at 2 p.m. and end at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced the following day, July 15, on Facebook and in the store, so you don’t need to be at the store in order to win.

Each entry must include at least 2 Fair Trade ingredients, recipes must be typed up, and only non-alcoholic drinks can be submitted. All entries must be labeled with your name!

So, I encourage people to take up their cooking utensils and cook for Fair Trade! I look forward to seeing what other people prepare and good luck to everyone!

-Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, First Fair Trade Intern

Fair Trade Ingredients Vegan Chai Cupcakes

A friend of mine made wonderful vegan chai cupcakes for me a few months ago, and I couldn’t get enough of them! So I finally decided to satiate my craving and make my own vegan chai cupcakes, only this time they would have Fair Trade ingredients! The cupcakes almost taste almost like carrot cake, but they have a bit of a spicy kick. These cupcakes do take some time to prepare (an hour and a half or so), but if you have the time, I definitely recommend trying them out!

This is a link to the recipe I used:

http://bakingdom.com/2010/09/sugar-spice-and-everything-nice-from-teacup-to-cupcake-vanilla-chai-tea-cupcakes.html

My journey to make the best Fair Trade ingredient cupcakes took me to the Wegmans in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Most of the Fair Trade items I bought were in the organic and special food aisle. Divine Chocolate, Honest Tea, Wholesome Sweetners, and a handful of other Fair Trade brands can be found in this aisle. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is with the regular ice creams, however (Cherry Garcia being my forever favorite).

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. I substituted in Fair Trade ingredients where I could. For sugar, I used Wholesome Sweetners Organic sugar (and where the recipe calls for confectioners’ sugar, I put the Wholesome Sweetners sugar through a food grinder to make it finer). I also used Zhena’s Gypsytea Fair Trade Vanilla Chai tea blend for the batter. You don’t have to use the vanilla flavor; they also offer hazelnut and a spicier chai if you so desire. I was unable to find Fair Trade vanilla, however. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Wegmans does not stock Fair Trade vanilla, it just means I couldn’t find it.

I used the applesauce instead of eggs, as the recipe suggests for the vegan option, and I couldn’t tell the difference. Applesauce gives the recipe a bit more flavor, in my opinion, as cinnamon and apples go together like a hot day and lemonade. I also used vanilla soy milk (to go with the vanilla chai), and used margarine for the icing instead of butter. For an extra zing, I added a pinch more cinnamon than the recipe suggested. I like my cupcakes with a bit of a kick to them!

I highly recommend this recipe! It was not difficult at all to follow and very simple (and I am not the most experienced baker).

Next up on my Fair Trade cooking recipe list…Fair Trade ingredient Crème Brulee! Let’s see if I can locate some Fair Trade Vanilla first…Wholefoods anyone?

Contributed by Sarah DeMartino, Fair Trade Intern

More on those Fair Trade chocolate chip brownies…

Wondering how to make your own Fair Trade chocolate chip brownies?  Of course, we could have the argument that they are not truly Fair Trade brownies, only made with some Fair Trade ingredients… but how about we just celebrate that these ingredients are available not far from the campus!  I followed the standard chocolate chip brownie recipe that you would find on the back of the bag of chocolate chips.  Some bags only have a cookie recipe, so you can make a thick pan cookie.  I spread the dough in a 7×11 glass pan and cut 12 brownies.

I was able to visit the ACME in Broomall to get Sunspire Fair Trade/Organic chocolate chips.  The Giant on Sproul Road in Springfield yielded the Frontier vanilla and Wholesome Sweeteners sugar and light brown sugar.  Yum!

Don’t forget that you can visit our map where we continue to add stores that sell Fair Trade food items available within an approximate 60-mile radius of campus.

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

Jimmy Fallon and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream

Jimmy Fallon’s flavor of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Late Night Snack, is a Fair Trade certified ice cream. The vanilla and fudge being used in the Late Night Snack ice cream are Fair Trade certified. The proceeds from the ice cream sales are being sent to the Fair Trade Universities initiative.  The owners explained that Fair Trade gives the farmers from the under-privileged worlds a fair wage for their products being used in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.

It was nice to see a high profile celebrity and one of the largest ice cream makers in the United States bringing Fair Trade into the lime light. Having Fair Trade mentioned on a widely-watched television show gives Fair Trade a boost and jumps it into the spotlight. This mention hopefully will turn more celebrities onto Fair Trade items. There are already a few celebrities that have gotten in the Fair Trade spirit.  Hopefully, there will be more to follow.

View this video of Jimmy Fallon with Ben & Jerry!

Contributed by Steve Hurwitz