Thursday, February 25, 2010

Helpful Fair Trade Links for all Groups

Hey Everyone,
attached you will find the e-mail correspondence I have been having with TransFair USA. Jamie has provided us with some very valuable contacts. Feel free to use them in your groups as you see fit. It is my understanding that some of these community members are very excited about our campaign and would love to get involved. I hope this helps and good luck!

Hey Whitney,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Please find attached a contact list of everyone in our database for the Triangle Area that might make a good steering committee member. The list is in order of priority and includes former members of the North Carolina Fair Trade campaign, Fair Trade Certified coffee roasters in the area and even a few Fair Trade Certified wine importers and distributors. We’ve also included the contact information for everyone we’ve ever worked with at UNC Chapel Hill, so there may be a few more students you can draft for your efforts.

I would encourage you to start with the former members of North Carolina Fair Trade Campaign and find out how you might build upon the steering committee they established for the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area in 2007. The lead contact is Beth Richardson, who runs a store called Zebra Crossings in Chapel Hill. She can bring you up to speed on the history of the movement in the area. I will do an introductory email as soon as I hit send on this. You can find the website for the North Carolina Fair Trade Campaign and a few additional members that aren’t on our contact list here:

http://ncfairtrade.wordpress.com/

The group also had an email list which you might be able to build on here:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ncfairtrade/

Next I would contact the Fair Trade Certified coffee roasters and find out if they will send a representative to your meetings, cosponsor the campaign or supply events with donations, and lastly, provide you with a list of retailers in Chapel Hill where their products are sold. That should give you a head start on your where to buy list and get you a few new committee members. The contacts listed on the spreadsheet are either the founder, owner, or marketing director. There may be a few on our website that snuck through the search of our database. You can find a complete list of our licensees for North Carolina here:

http://www.transfairusa.org/content/certification/licensees.php?category=all&include=Everyone&sort=state

Next, you will want to search for local members of the Fair Trade Federation which you can find from the Fair Trade Federation web page and search for North Carolina member businesses. Click Find Members, Member Directory, and then search North Carolina. Similarly call all these businesses and ask if they will send someone to be on your steering committee, contribute to events or share with you a list of retailers where their products are sold. The main two you will definitely want to connect with are Larry’s Beans and Ten Thousand Villages Chapel Hill, both of which are essential to your steering committee and should know what you are talking about when you call:

http://www.fairtradefederation.org/index.php

Lastly, please find attached some sample resolutions from Highland Park, Amherst, and Burlington. Burlington is the most recent and has the strongest language of the three while still incorporating the Buy Local, Buy Fair theme.

Good luck!

Jamie

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James Guzzi

Consumer Outreach Coordinator

TransFair USA

1500 Broadway Ave. Suite 400

Oakland, CA 94612

ph: 510-663-5260

fax: 510-663-5264

jguzzi@transfairusa.org

www.FairTradeCertified.org

TransFair USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is one of twenty members of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) and the only independent certifier of Fair Trade food and beverage products in the United States. Your donation helps us bring this powerful alternative to business-as-usual to US consumers, benefiting farming communities around the world. To donate online now, click here.

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