UMCOR Coffee Project: Good Coffee for a Good Cause

The UMCOR Coffee Project is a United Methodist Committee on Relief project linking congregations with small farmers and their families through fair trade. It is a new way to help people in need while enjoying fellowship and an excellent cup of coffee. As Christians we can address a consumer dilemma by buying coffee that is fairly traded. United Methodist congregations that participate are supporting practices which help farmers in Latin America, Africa and Asia earn a fairer share of income, obtain access to credit and technical support, and gain a trading partner they can trust, a fair trade organization called Equal Exchange.

In your congregation, a United Methodist Women's group, youth group, mission committee, or peace and justice committee might sponsor the UMCOR Coffee Project. Then, as your congregation enjoys this high-quality coffee, take time to learn more about its impact on the people who grow it. Read about coffee farmers and the ways in which the church is helping people like them. Discuss issues of justice in the global marketplace and take action in the spirit of love. Long-term congregational commitment has sustained UMCOR's ministires of relief and development for more than 60 years. With such commitment, we can also make a difference in this new way.

Coffee: A Bitter Cup?

Coffee is big business --it's the second most heavily traded commodity in the world. But for the majority of small coffee farmers, the benefits are small. The chain of events that leads from the coffee farm to your cup is long and expensive, often leaving the farmer with very little to live on.

Most small coffee farmers live in isolated communities in some of the poorest countries in the world. They usually sell their coffee through middlemen, known to Latin American farmers as "coyotes." With world prices in constant flux and coyotes offering the lowest price possible, farmers never know how much they'll get for their crops.

Some 20 million people near the equator depend on coffee for their livelihood. In their struggle just to make a simple living, the producers of a rich crop are often trapped in poverty.

But there is an alternative: FAIR TRADE. Fair trade shares the bounty of the coffee trade with those who grow the crop, helping them build a better future for themselves and their communities.

What You Can Do

SERVE FAIRLY TRADED COFFEE & TEA at church events and during fellowship hour, and make it available to members for home use. For ordering information, see the "How to Order" section of this web page.

OFFER GIFT BASKETS of fairly traded coffee and tea for new members, as Christmas presents, or on other occasions.

DESIGN FUNDRAISING PROJECTS in your church offering fairly-traded coffee and tea.

DISCUSS FAIR TRADE ISSUES in Sunday school and study groups. Provide local businesses with information about offering fairly traded coffee from Equal Exchange.

ORDER ADDITIONAL RESOURCES such as this brochure by calling Equal Exchange at 1-781-830-0303 x228. Pamphlets, table tents, posters and other educational materials are also available from Equal Exchange and can be included with your coffee order.

Fair Trade: A Taste Of Justice

The UMCOR Coffee Project offers a new link between our congregations and people in other countries. We can reach out to our neighbors overseas with the things we purchase as well as the offerings we give. In addition, for each case of coffee, tea or cocoa purchased through the project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to the UMCOR Small Farmer Fund which further supports coffee farmers and their families. Listen to the difference fair trade makes:

"We used to live in houses made of corn husks," says Don Miguel Sifontes, president of a coffee cooperative in El Salvador that sells to Equal Exchange. "Now we have better work, better schools, homes of adobe, and a greater brotherhood of decision-makers."

In Nicaragua, Equal Exchange helped small farmers to organize their own co-op, called PRODECOOP. By participating in the UMCOR Coffee Project, United Methodists can help the co-op invest in farm improvements, reduce debt, improve nutrition, and provide administrative training for members. "It is very important for you to know that fair trade leads to better roads, better health and better lives for farmers, not just in Nicaragua, but around the world," says Rosario Castellon, former director of PRODECOOP.

In Tanzania, Equal Exchange worked with the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) to export their coffee directly to the U.S. for the first time. Gabriel Ulomi of KNCU thanked churches for getting involved in the project: "By drinking a cup of fairly traded coffee, you're giving small farmers in poor countries an opportunity to plan their own futures."

The Equal Exchange Commitment

UMCOR's partner in this project, Equal Exchange, is an employee-owned fair trade organization committed to the following principles:

• To pay a fair price with a guaranteed minimum, ensuring the farmers a fair return for their labors.
• To work with cooperatives that are owned and governed by the farmers themselves.
• To buy directly from the farmers so the benefits of trade go to the farmers and their communities.
• To provide credit that farmers can afford, helping them to break the cycle of debt.
• To encourage ecologically sustainable farming practices such as organic and shade-grown agriculture which build a long-term economic base for farmers while protecting community health and the environment.

As a fair trade organization, Equal Exchange follows these standards on 100% of its coffees. Through its Interfaith Coffee Program, thousands of places of worship have become involved in fair trade, helping small farmers build a better life for themselves and their families.

How To Order

ON THE WEB: The easiest way to order for your congregation, office or organization is on the web at http://store.yahoo.com/equalexchange. Ordering information is here. BY MAIL OR FAX: You can obtain an order form any of the following ways:

• Email interfaith@equalexchange.com
• Call 774-776-7400 or 774-776-7366
• Download an order form in printable PDF format:
• Coffee Order Form (600K).

File Download Help: To read and print PDF files, you must have the free Adobe Acrobat^® Reader installed on your computer. If you are on a slower online connection and a PDF file is large, try the right-click download technique: With your mouse, try right-clicking on the link (with Macintosh, hold "Control" and click). From the menu that appears, select "save target as," "save object as," or "save link as." Choose the directory on your computer where you want to save the file and then download ("save") it. (This right-click technique does not work with Firefox.)

Equal Exchange offers a full line of fairly traded coffees in bulk whole bean, packaged whole bean and drip grind, percolator grind and pillow pack varieties, as well as fairly traded organic teas and cocoa, coffee filters and cups. Please e-mail interfaith@equalexchange.com, call 774-776-7400 or 774-776-7366, or write to us.

Worship Resources

• Building a Better World, One Sip at a Time, Sermon for Fair Trade Sunday.
• Fair Trade Sunday Worship Service, web page format.
• Fair Trade Sunday Worship Service, UMCOR Church Bulletin Insert format.

Onsite and Partners News and Features

• Dominican Cocoa Farmers Recover with United Methodist Help, UMNS, February 11, 2005.
• UMCOR Promotes Fair Trade Cup of Cocoa, UMNS, October 29, 2003.
• A Close-Up Look at Fair Trade in the Coffee Lands of El Salvador by Mary Dipboye, New World Outlook, July-August 2003.
• Using Fair-trade Coffee at Fellowship Hour Helps Small Farmers, UMNS, May 1, 2003.
• Building Stronger Communities in Oaxaca, Mexico through Agriculture and Health Care, UMCOR Inasmuch Update, Summer 2000.
  The population of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico consists largely of very poor indigenous communities who earn their income through small-scale coffee growing.
• Global Exchange Fair Coffee Campaign.
  Coffee is the second largest US import after oil, and the US consumes one-fifth of all the world's coffee, making it the largest consumer in the world. But few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as "sweatshops in the fields."
• Equal Exchange Interfaith Coffee Program: Joining Faith & Fair Trade.
  Around the world coffee and fellowship come together where we share community. A warm pot of coffee is often the centerpiece of fellowship hour and other gatherings.

Offsite News and Features

• Brewing a Better Cup Derek Reiber, Tidepool, January 21, 2004.
  As fair trade coffee gains ground with consumers, the industry's big players join in, leading to calls of 'greenwashing'.
• Coming to the Grocery Shelf: Fair-trade Food The Christian Science Monitor, September 29, 2003.
• Fair Trade Coffee Leader Unconvinced by Procter & Gamble Announcement: Equal Exchange Issues $25,000 Challenge To P&G, September 16, 2003.
• Equal Exchange Debuts Fair Trade Cocoa Powder for National Distribution, Equal Exchange, September 9, 2003.
• Child Victims of Coffee Trade Wars, BBC, February 10, 2003.
• Albertsons and Equal Exchange Coffee Team Up to Please Consumers and Small Farmers, Equal Exchange, January 29, 2003.
• See also:
• Coffee and Congregations, Creation Stewardship in Central New York.
  By buying and serving "Justice Coffee," this common symbol of fellowship can also become a way of caring for coffee farmers in Central America, for our migratory birds, as well as for the earth. You'll be serving a cup of justice for three worthy causes, not just one!
• Shade-Grown Coffee, Smithsonian Institution.
  Shade grown coffee plantations play a key role in the conservation of migratory birds that have found a sanctuary in their forest-like environment.
• Trans Fair USA
  TransFair USA is the only non-profit certification organization for Fair Trade products in the US.
• Why Migratory Birds are Crazy for Shade-Grown Coffee, Smithsonian Institution.
  Because of recent changes in coffee production and marketing, shade coffee plantations are a threatened habitat. In the past twenty years, coffee has begun to be grown with no shade canopy at all.

Whom to Contact

World Hunger and Poverty Office
United Methodist Committee on Relief
General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
Room 330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115
Phone: 212-870-3877
Email: jkim@gbgm-umc.org
Web: http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/hunger.stm

EQUAL EXCHANGE
50 United Drive,
West Bridgewater,
MA 02379
Fax: 508-587-5955
Tel: 774-776-7366
Email: interfaith@equalexchange.com
Web: http://www.equalexchange.com

 

Photo Credit: Isidra Pacheo Aparicio is part of CEPCO, a network of coffee producers in Oaxaca, Mexico. CEPCO experiments with new cash and food crops and different methods of raising livestock, trains women in food cultivation and animal husbandry, provides seedlings and livestock to women's projects throughout the countryside, and generates income through the sale of food and animals. Courtesy of CEPCO.