Preparing for World Fair Trade Day (hopefully, our Declaration Day!)

The Fair Trade TrailBlazers will have a table at Middletown Community Day, held at the Penn State Brandywine campus on Saturday, May 12.  It just so happens that May 12 is also World Fair Trade Day, and hopefully, the day our campus is declared with Fair Trade University status!

At Middletown Community Day, we will have a table with educational information and brochures about Fair Trade, as well as samples of Equal Exchange chocolate (the mini organic dark chocolate bars) to hand out.  But with over 2,000 people expected to stop by campus on this day, we have alot to prepare!  After some marathon sessions of cutting and taping (such as the scenes in the photos below), we think we are ready.  Of course, we are still waiting on pins and needles for the verdict on our Fair Trade University application…

Contributed by Dr. Laura Guertin

 

Spreading the Campaign with a Little Help from ENGL 419

During our Fair Trade journey, we worked with two students from the English 419 class, Jason Mandell and Jeff Beecher. Both of these students were very dedicated in helping our push for being a Fair Trade University campus. Both Jason and Jeff attended the Divine Chocolate seminar by Amanda White.  On May 17th and 18th, we had our Fair Trade T-Shirt Exchange and we asked Jeff what he thought about the event. Jeff responded, “The exchange was very productive. I liked how the word got out to students and they understood what was going on and really took a liking to it.” Jeff also mentioned that, “The swap was beneficial for our campus and it was very organized by the students and Dr. Guertin.”

Then we caught up with Jason and asked him more about Fair Trade. We asked him questions such as: what are your thoughts about Fair Trade,what has it been like to write about it, and would he agree that Fair Trade would benefit for our campus? Jason enthusiastically responded: “It’s a very interesting concept that can result in a beneficial cause, and form a trade between power countries and developing countries, a way to bridge the gap.” And when we asked if Fair Trade University status would it be good for our campus, Jason responded, ” Yes, it would be very good for our campus. We are able to educate the student and faculty on the cause and why it is beneficial to our community and campus and could spread to other PSU campus’ and help the Fair Trade movement.”

Thanks again for the help from Jason Mandell and Jeff Beecher of Professor Donna Talis’ English 419 class for their press release, recruitment letter, and overall support for Fair Trade.

Contributed by Joe Sweeny

 

T-Shirt swap was a huge success!

The Penn State Brandywine first Fair Trade T-Shirt Exchange was a huge success. We exchanged 72 t-shirts and received 237 and counting in return! This t-shirt swap could not have been done without all the excellent students in our class, our hard working teacher, and all the staff and faculty around campus.

The Penn State Fair Trade t-shirts were purchased from Alta Gracia, which is a fair trade company located in the Dominican Republic, with a grant from the Student Allocations Fee Committee. All the students in the class and our professor Dr. G did a wonderful job preparing for our t-shirt swap. We put together brochures, a list of our URLs for our social networks, and posters to promote Fair Trade and our t-shirt swap. For the swap the rules were simple. You could bring in any number of t-shirts as long as they were slightly used and wearable, and in exchange the swapper gets one Penn State Fair Trade t-shirt. The swap was held on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week and was held indoors and outdoors. On Wednesday our turnout was fairly small because most of the students and staff were not aware that the swap was going on, despite the flyers and emails. A lot of students were excited about the swap when they saw it and told us that they would be back on Thursday with a t-shirt. On Thursday the swap skyrocketed through the roof in popularity. Students and staff did a great job of contributing.

This swap made our movement even more interesting then ever. We had fun with this swap but also did a great job of getting the word out to the students and staff. On behalf of our ENVST400W class we would like to thank everyone that made this possible and we would also like to throw a special thank you to Alta Gracia and Joe Buskirk from our Penn State Brandywine bookstore, donating 37 t-shirts from the bookstore himself, for making this swap a huge success.

Contributed by Joe Sweeny

How to host a Fair Trade t-shirt swap!

The Fair Trade t-shirt exchange at Penn State Brandywine was a huge success! During our journey toward becoming a Fair Trade University, we have worked toward raising awareness of the Fair Trade movement and our efforts on campus. As part of the process, we’ve committed to hosting several Fair Trade events on campus each semester. Our first big event was hosting Amanda White from Divine Chocolate (read more about it here), and our second event was Wednesday and Thursday’s Fair Trade T-shirt exchange. We hope that our experience can help other campuses learn how to best host a Fair Trade T-shirt Swap!

Aimee Ralph, showing some Penn State pride! (photo via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

Our t-shirt swap was a two-day event where students could bring in a gently used t-shirt to exchange for a brand new, Fair Trade, Penn State t-shirt from Alta Gracia Apparel. Our 72 Fair Trade tees quickly disappeared, and we received 237 tees for charity in exchange! All of the donated tees were given to local Planet Aid drop boxes. We chose Planet Aid because we felt that their mission of global sustainability and recycling clothing complements the missions of the Fair Trade movement.

Here are a few of the important lessons we learned about hosting a t-shirt swap:

1. Get the word out! Be sure to effectively use your campus’s social media and other forms of making announcements to make sure that everyone knows about the event. Everyone wants a free t-shirt (which is a huge draw for spreading the Fair Trade message), but on our campus, not everyone knew about the swap. If we had spread the word a bit better, we could have made a bigger impact.
2. Set your date early, hold the event later. Setting the date early in the semester will help your committee spread the word, so that a t-shirt swap later in the semester will be successful.
3. Apply for funding. You might be surprised at the funds your school will provide for you. We not only got our 72 t-shirts donated (with the help of our campus’s student activity fee), but we also got our student government association to provide funding for us for future activities on campus.
4. Students first! If you are doing a two-day event, dedicate the first day to students only. On the second day, set aside the first half of your event for students and then give staff and faculty the opportunity to swap for a tee. Unfortunately, we ran out so quickly that some students who wanted to participate didn’t get a chance to snag a Fair Trade tee!
5. Have an elevator speech & Fair Trade literature. Some students were confused as to why we were collecting old t-shirts to donate to charity when we had a slew snazzy new shirts to give out for free. “Why don’t you just donate those?” one student asked us. We realized that although we had a brochure that explained why we were doing the swap, and our posters all said something about Fair Trade, the cause of the event was lost on a lot of people. Be prepared with a 30 seconds-or-less “elevator speech” for the students who want to get their hands on free swag. Why are you doing this swap? What is Fair Trade? What are you doing on campus to promote the movement? In addition to the brochure, we handed out a half-sheet of paper that included links to our social media outlets and petition on change.org.

Joe gives a Fair Trade tee to Director of Student Affairs, Dr. Matthew Shupp, while Sarah gets footage of the TrailBlazers in action (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

 Bryan and Sara, packing up the donated tees… all 237 of them! (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

Sara talks to Matthew Bodek, Instructional Design Specialist on campus (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

The whole lot! Thanks PSU Brandywine, for your support! (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

With a campus of about 1600 students, we were able to give away 72 t-shirts without a problem. For campuses with a larger student body, make sure you order enough tees! This is an event that will definitely bring success to your movement on campus.

Contributed by Sara Neville.

Presenting at EURECA 2012

The Fair Trade TrailBlazers presented a poster at the campus undergraduate research symposium EURECA on April 17, 2012.  The abstract and poster were a collaborative effort, with TrailBlazer Bryan Marton (pictured below) representing the group at EURECA.  The text of the abstract is included in this post.  Click here to view a PDF of the poster.

Commuting to the Grounds of Fair Trade University Status: Achieving Leadership in Penn State’s Fair Trade Movement

Bryan Marton, Sarah DeMartino, Louis Donaghue, Stephen Hurwitz, Sara Neville, John Ramaika, Joseph Sweeny, Dr. Laura Guertin (Faculty Advisor)
Environmental Inquiry Program, bam408@psu.edu, szd5130@psu.edu, lfd5019@psu.edu, smh198@psu.edu, sen136@psu.edu, jjr5072@psu.edu, jas5763@psu.edu, guertin@psu.edu

Abstract
Fair Trade is a global social movement for producers, consumers, communities, and the environment.  The purchase of Fair Trade certified products serves to protect the planet, build sustainable business, empower women, support education, fight poverty, and provide health care.  Universities are strategically situated to harness the power of higher education to raise awareness about the benefits of Fair Trade to small-scale producers and workers. Schools can be honored with Fair Trade University status by embedding Fair Trade principles within administrative policy and the social fabric of the academic community.  Fair Trade University (FTU) status is appropriate for Penn State Brandywine, with the institution’s land-grant mission and commitment to global issues.  Designated a FTU allows the campus to solidify local connections with the nation’s first Fair Trade Town (Media, PA) and first Fair Trade public high school (Penncrest).

Students enrolled in the Spring 2012 Senior Seminar in Environmental Studies (ENVST 400W) set out to complete the process for becoming a Fair Trade University.  Students were required to consult with various offices on campus, including business services and the bookstore.  Students needed to draft documents for the FTU proposal, including a resolution, procurement policy, and future plans for campus academic and extra-curricular integration.  No textbook or curricular materials existed for the students to work from; the process to become a FTU required much critical thinking, inquiry, networking, and leadership.

After organizing two Fair Trade events and presenting to various campus audiences, the students have submitted the Fair Trade University application for review.  Penn State Brandywine looks forward to joining six other universities designated with FTU status and being the first Penn State campus with this honor.  Future goals include expanding campus student involvement and sharing the process and products with other Penn State campuses and universities, being a leader locally and nationally.

We Are… A Fair Trade University campus (soon!)

Read this post written by Fair Trade TrailBlazer Steve Hurwitz on his thoughts/reflections about being a part of the Fair Trade University movement on campus.  Steve’s post was published on The Brandywine Blog, the view of the campus through the eyes of students.

http://www.psu.edu/dept/bw/pride/2012/04/we-are-a-fair-trade-university-campus-soon.html

 

 

VIDEO: Penn State Brandywine’s Journey to Becoming a Fair Trade University

View our video that explores our mission and objectives for earning Fair Trade University status. Fair Trade University status was granted to Penn State Brandywine on May 12, 2012.

Divine Chocolate: empowering small farmers

I was excited for today’s speaker, Amanda White from Divine Chocolate, not only for the free samples our faculty adviser ordered for us (the toffee nut crunch is, well… divine!), but for the opportunity to engage in conversation with someone who is in the depths of this complex and valuable global movement.

After giving us the history of Kuapa Kokoo, the farming co-op in Ghana that began their own chocolate company in 1997, Amanda talked about the importance of the Fair Trade business model. Not only does it provide farmers with fair wages in the form of minimum prices for their cocoa plus a social premium, but it provides them with knowledge, power, and profits that enhance many areas of their lives.

Amanda White (Divine Chocolate) speaking at Penn State Brandywine, April 16, 2012 (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

Empowering small farmers is at the root of the Fair Trade movement. Farmers learn more about their product by understanding the industry and having face-to-face communication with consumers, retailers, politicians, and activists. They have power over their own company by knowing exactly where their cocoa goes, how it’s handled and traded, and what contracts look like. With the knowledge and power that comes with owning their own chocolate company, farmers are swimming in profits that are not just monetary. The Fair Trade model gives farmers the ability the share in the profits they have helped create. So instead of using a lump of charity-donated money to build a school or a health clinic, their business practices allows for sustainability.

“It’s more than just a school or a health clinic,” Amanda shared with us. “It’s teachers and clinicians, too.”

Co-op farmers utilize this business model to build upon their profits. And with sustainable profit growth comes more knowledge, more power, and ultimately, the empowerment that the Fair Trade movement has set out to provide.

After her talk about Divine Chocolate (and a dozen or so chocolate bars later), Amanda fielded some questions and sat down with our committee to talk about the future of Fair Trade in the United States.

Amanda White (Divine Chocolate) with the Fair Trade TrailBlazers, after her seminar on April 16, 2012 (via Fair Trade at Penn State Brandywine)

We talked about the many facets of the movement. Want to get involved? Study agricultural anthropology, economics, international business, nonprofit management, women’s studies, communications, environmental sustainability… the list goes on. Our conversation reminded me of what Billy Linstead Goldsmith of Fair Trade Towns USA said during a workshop at Temple University a few weeks back: “Fair Trade is kind of a meeting point of all the aspects of social justice.”

That is what makes me so invested in the movement. That is why I’m eager to continue learning about all that Fair Trade has to offer, about it’s successes and vulnerabilities, about finding a place and a voice in our society, and moving forward as a sustainable movement in our country, and ultimately, the world.

Many thanks to Amanda and Divine Chocolate for lending her to us on this beautiful spring day! Learn more about Divine Chocolate at divinechocolate.com.

[View the story “Divine Chocolate speaks at Penn State Brandywine” on Storify, created from the live tweets during Amanda’s talk!]

Contributed by Sara Neville

Six Words for Fair Trade and Earth Day

Our campus virtually participated in Penn State’s Earth Day celebrations by leading an effort to collect six word postings relating to Planet Earth (see the post online to describe the project).

We asked our Fair Trade friends to post in their Twitter accounts or as a comment to this blog post six words that address not only the Earth but Fair Trade.  View our collection that increases even more awareness and discussion of Fair Trade for Earth Day 2012!  We looked for posts in Twitter with the hashtag #psubw6words and comments with six words below and placed them in our Storify collection.

[View the story “2012 Six Words for a Fair Trade Planet Earth” on Storify]

Penn State Sustainability Story on Earth Day

Our campus was asked to provide two MS PowerPoint slides for the “PowerPoint of all PowerPoints,” a slideshow to be displayed at Penn State University Park’s Earth Day celebration on April 20.  We jumped on the opportunity to use those two slides to highlight the environmental sustainability component of the Fair Trade movement (and for a little self-promotion about our pursuit of Fair Trade University status!).

Feel free to view our Penn State Brandywine slides for University Park’s Earth Day 2012 celebration, posted here as a PDF file.

 

Dunkin Donuts has a Fair Trade Video

Here is some information from Dunkin Donuts about their Fair Trade Espresso: http://www.dunkindonuts.com/DDBlog/2011/05/what_you_might_notk.trackback.html

Dunkin Donuts seems to be proud of their accomplishment with serving Fair Trade Product(s) . Why are they not totally Fair Trade and why do we not see this slideshow EVER ??? See here: http://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/dunkindonuts/en/coffee/espressostory.html

Contributed by Bryan Marton