Natural Products Expo West was AWESOME! Dakota & I were thrilled to represent Temple University among many others who have student campaigns to raise Fair Trade awareness on campus and begin to source more Fair Trade products to campus. It was truly incredible to get to be a part of the Expo, meet and network with Fair Trade Certified companies and talk about how they can help us with our campaign, and meet the super fun staff of Fair Trade USA and see how passionate everyone is about growing the reach of the campaign.

One pivotal moment of the Expo for me was meeting the CEO of Naranjillo, a coffee/chocolate company from Lima, Peru, who is in the process of becoming Fair Trade Certified. This moment stuck out to me because he actually knew the mentor I worked with in researching Fair Trade in Peru during my semester abroad, as well as the farmer I got to meet in Peru which really was a defining moment in why I became passionate about Fair Trade. I am so thankful to have had this moment, because it made me rethink what is truly behind the movement- the faces and the changes that are made. It’s easy to lose sight of things in a first-world country where I’m just consuming Fair Trade products and not experiencing the third-world poverty that agriculture producers face every day.

Here I am with Isaac & Rolando from Naranjillo at the Fair Trade USA booth:

On Thursday evening, Dakota & I arrived to Anaheim after a road trip along Hwy 1 through Big Sur, to San Francisco & Muir Woods, to Sausalito, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia groves, and the Mojave Dessert. In our first meeting of the weekend with Fair Trade USA and their partners, we got to network with different awesome companies (like Badger chapstick, several tea companies, and Esteem who focuses on Fair Trade cotton in India) and we even got to be a part of Fair Trade USA’s presentation. We lovedddd presenting and representing the company at a collegiate/student level and explained the different project we’ve taken on, are working on, and are planning for the future relative to Fair Trade. We mentioned our eat2defeat event via Students for Responsible Business (SRB), various chocolate tastings, a Fair Trade internship, our “Change Your Clothes” Alta Gracia campaign, Fair Trade Training Day & our Fair Trade Food Trucks initiative (which is in it’s baby stages still). The companies seemed to enjoy hearing from us and were very open about different ways that they could help us out on campus.

We gave these goodies away to all meeting attendees:

Friday was definitely our busiest day of networking and helping out and running around the expo. We worked on scoping out all of the Fair Trade Certified companies and distributing marketing materials to them, talking to them about our campaign, and familiarizing ourselves with their products which we’ll potentially be trying to bring to campus very soon. Some of my favorite companies with the Fair Trade Certification off the top of my head were Three Twins ice cream, Chocolate XOXO candy bars, and Coconut Bliss (AMAZING ICE CREAM!)- We’ll be blogging more about these companies and products shortly. (Behind on the blogs due to a lagging internet in our expo hotel). After a day of running around at the expo, we worked at a new products launch party on behalf of Fair Trade USA- very fun! Very tiring, very insightful.

Here we are hanging out at the Fair Trade USA booth:

More to come on the expo!…

Of course we stopped for some iced coffee- it was delicious. And we got to learn about a company we hadn’t known- Grounds for Change. Check them out @ http://www.groundsforchange.com/!

Fair Trade awareness on the west coast waayyyyy out does the East Coast, from my experience (San Fran to Philly at least).

I’d always heard of “Fair Trade bananas” and finally indulged because they sold them in an organic/health shop on Haight street in San Francisco, but we’ve seen many more signs supporting and explaining Fair Trade in places we’ve been so far out here in California.

AWESOME MARKET where we found Fair Trade bananas!

We were also amazed when we ventured through the mountains across the Golden Gate bridge and there was Fair Trade coffee being brewed in our little old cottage hostel.. The hostel even had a big sign explaining the benefits of Fair Trade to make guests aware- you couldn’t miss it as you fill your cup.

And all throughout San Francisco there are little cafes with Fair Trade coffee brewing. It’s lovely.

And oh my goodness, Ben & Jerry’s in San Fran offers so much Fair Trade! We even asked the B&J’s workers what they know about Fair Trade and it seems they’re all very well trained! They even told us about fairs around town they participate in to teach others about Fair Trade.

Yesterday we were excited to visit Fair Trade USA in Oakland, CA, across the Bay Bridge. The office was really awesome and everyone that works there was very friendly- we enjoyed some fresh brewed Fair Trade coffee from Indonesia & snacked on delicious mint chocolate, toured the office, and were introduced to everyone we’ll be working with at the Natural Products Expo West. (We are excited beyond beliefffff). We’ll be blogging about hot new Fair Trade products, working a Fair Trade Happy Hour & a Fair Trade tweet up!

Here are some pictures from our visit at the office…

Fair Trade cup of coffee from Indonesia:

All the products!

My favorite products..

Just another day in the office

We hosted a Fair Trade hot chocolate giveaway for anyone who came by our stand with a reusable mug, it was fun & delicious and a different way to get the word out about what Fair Trade is. The hot chocolate we used was Trader Joe’s Spicy Hot Cocoa. It sports the new Fair Trade label, which is in a 2-year transition process from the original black and white bucket boy logo.

The new label is not visible in the above photo, but this is what to look out for:

And here we are at the hot chocolate stand:

This month we also worked a lot on organizing a regional Fair Trade Training Day which will be a weekend event with a bunch of schools from the Philadelphia/PA region to learn how to run better fair trade campaigns on campus! I think it’s going to get everyone very excited about it and pumped up to get the ball rolling on their campus.

We are also in the planning stages of creating a Fair Trade internship on campus, gathering fair trade companies to come to the Better Business Conference and events for Spring Fling, etc.

- Fair Trade Hot Chocolate Tasting for Valentines Day: Feb. 14
- Fair Trade Campaign Training day with Fair Trade USA: March 17 (networking with other universities in Philadelphia)
- Creating a Fair Trade intern paid position on campus to draft procurement/resolution policies for Temple University
- Meeting with Sodexo next week to source more Fair Trade products to Temple!
- Getting Fair Trade companies to come to Students for Responsible Business’ Better Business Conference
- Movie night with Drexel for Justice
- Having La Colombe’s truck visit Temple to promote Fair Trade!

Sooo on another note, Maria DiGeorge (AG intern @ Temple) and I were interviewed about Alta Gracia to be featured in Temple News’ “Movers & Shakers” section- when we went to the bookstore for a photo-op with our favorite sweat-free apparel, Jim Hanley (bookstore manager) let us know his orders to replace the entire front shelf of basic Temple tees rolled on shelves with ALTA GRACIA t-shirts. WOOT!

We are making progress, Owls.

This is where Alta Gracia will be featured starting Feb. 6th!!!

ALSO: FIRST MEETING FOR TEMPLE STUDENTS FOR FAIR TRADE OF SPRING 2012 SEMESTER THIS FRIDAY! comment for details, find us on Facebook (Temple Students for Fair Trade) or email me @ bridget.quint@temple.edu.

continued…

How they dealt with tax issues with management..

Students are welcome here.

Room to grow.

No individual contracts.

It’s quite a coincidence the banner’s message behind me in this video.

Day 1, after meeting everyone in Santo Domingo.

Heading to Villa Altagracia on Day 2, in a Guagua (Dominican form of public transportation- kind of like Peruvian combos).

Quickie history briefing on Alta Gracia.

Meeting the Alta Gracia union members.

Walking tour of Villa Altagracia.

Home-stay living conditions

Enjoy