As Fairfield students conduct their noontime ritual of walking to the Campus Center to check their mail and read newspaper headlines, halfway around the world an Ethiopian farmer is nearing a break in his day. He is harvesting coffee and has been since before students are’ awake.’
He is one of 12 million Ethiopians who make their living working in the coffee industry; however, unlike his fellow coffee growers, he is not being paid a fair price.’
And starting this week you can help him and many others around the world make a fair wage by simply doing what you already do: drinking coffee.
This week, Sodexho will begin to exclusively serve fair trade coffee in the Stag diner, main dining hall, and Canisius snack bar. Jazzman’s, on the other hand, will continue to serve a selection of fair trade coffees among the many blends the café already offers. The reason behind this change in inventory- simply put – students demanded it.’
More specifically, the student group Students for Social Justice (S4SJ) rallied support and made a commitment to make the University a purveyor of coffee that is not only of the highest quality, but also supports the growers and communities that produce it.
‘Fair trade coffee guarantees farmers from third world countries the equivalent of a minimum wage’ Maggie Ward ’12, a member of S4SJ, said. ‘Basically, it gives them just payment for their hard work – imagine that!’
In fact, the certification that products are fair trade ensures a number of things.’ First, farmers are paid a fair price for their goods, giving them the ability to support a family and send their children to school instead of keeping them in the field. Moreover, a fair-wage benefits the entire community as they work together to better their society through increased income.
‘ Secondly, a fair price guarantees that the highest quality product is produced under the greatest care.’ This means avoiding cost-cutting means of production and, in most cases, assuring that products are organic or shade grown, helping to preserve the environment and biodiversity in threatened areas.’ ‘ ‘
The decision by Sodexho to switch their entire inventory of coffee to fair-trade suppliers was facilitated by S4SJ. After posting comment cards en masse in the cafeteria, the group scheduled a meeting with Bryan Davis, general manager of dining services on campus.
‘We expected resistance by Sodexho to our campaign’ said Kristin Villanueva ’09, an executive board member of S4SJ, ‘We were prepared to petition for change, but Sodexho was really understanding and open to what we had to say’
From a single meeting between the two parties, it was decided that Sodexho’s next order of coffee would be exclusively fair trade. That leads us to this week when inventory should turn over and the Stag diner, main dining hall, and Canisius snack bar will serve only fair trade coffee.
But what about Jazzman’s?
In the past, fair trade coffee has been offered on a rotating schedule at the café, occupying at most two of the eight spots on Jazzman’s menu. Yet even as all other places on campus switch to fair trade coffee, Jazzman’s is bound by its distributor.
In selecting what coffee to brew, Jazzman’s, a brand, chose to build its menu on coffee that is environmentally friendly but not necessarily fair trade. The result is a brew that protects the rainforest but not the farmers who produce it – A true moral conundrum.’
Yet, despite the absence of solely fair trade coffee from Jazzman’s kudos must be given to Sodexho for working with students to live out the Jesuit ideals of Fairfield and with each cup choosing to benefit the world beyond their wallets.
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