Maybe you can help.
This Wednesday Night (Oct 21) is our church Vestry Meeting (church leadership), and I'm hoping someone will be able to come and help me present the idea of switching to Fair Trade Coffee. The meeting starts at 6:30 and it would just be a brief time at the beginning. It would be great just to have someone like yourself from the congregation to show the Vestry that this an issue that is important to parishioners.
Here's what I have: I went to Ten Thousand Villages and got a big display of Level Ground coffee, as well as their promise for tax-free coffee at a 10% discount for the church. I also got a DVD, pamphlettes and info. The switch would mean better tasting coffee grown by fairly-paid farmers and their families.
Please let me know, by phone, email or blog comment, if you can come this Wednesday!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Responsible Coffee
Something has been on my heart for some time, and I post this here in hopes that perhaps you feel the same. A while ago I came across a verse in the book of James that stopped me in my tracks, and I'd like to share it with you.
And immediately I thought of the coffee I enjoy every morning. Am I cheating the worker? Shouldn't I do something about that? All the more so, shouldn't our church?
All around the world people struggle to make a decent life for themselves and their families. Economic turmoil and climate change have made basic survival very difficult for many people. But on top of this, when workers do not recieve addecuit pay for thier goods and services, how can they possibly survive? So now Janie and I buy fair trade coffee for our home. It costs more, but I know the extra money is actually making it back to the hands of the growers, which is great. It's not much, but it's something.
Is this something that you think about to? Do unfair wages stir your passion? If so, please consider joining with me to partition the leadership of the church to change the coffee we buy for the church. I would like to gather the number (how much more it would cost, etc) and make a brief presentation to the Vestry. But it would mean so much more coming from you, or several of you, than it would from me.
This is a small step that I think could make a big difference. Please leave a comment or email me if you'd like to talk more about this.
-Dave C
To see the PWRDF's information page on Fair Trade, click here.
To learn more about one Fair Trade coffee initiative, supported by MCC, click here.
James 5:4
For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
And immediately I thought of the coffee I enjoy every morning. Am I cheating the worker? Shouldn't I do something about that? All the more so, shouldn't our church?
All around the world people struggle to make a decent life for themselves and their families. Economic turmoil and climate change have made basic survival very difficult for many people. But on top of this, when workers do not recieve addecuit pay for thier goods and services, how can they possibly survive? So now Janie and I buy fair trade coffee for our home. It costs more, but I know the extra money is actually making it back to the hands of the growers, which is great. It's not much, but it's something.
Is this something that you think about to? Do unfair wages stir your passion? If so, please consider joining with me to partition the leadership of the church to change the coffee we buy for the church. I would like to gather the number (how much more it would cost, etc) and make a brief presentation to the Vestry. But it would mean so much more coming from you, or several of you, than it would from me.
This is a small step that I think could make a big difference. Please leave a comment or email me if you'd like to talk more about this.
-Dave C
To see the PWRDF's information page on Fair Trade, click here.
To learn more about one Fair Trade coffee initiative, supported by MCC, click here.
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