Since 2001, UUSC has been helping our members get directly involved in the fair trade movement.

One way UUs are putting their values into action is by combining their Sunday morning coffee hour with social justice. In 2001, UUSC launched the UUSC Coffee Project  in partnership with Equal Exchange. Since then, the incredible participation of UUSC members and UU congregations has made this project a huge success.

In 2006 alone, UUs purchased over 44 tons of fairly traded products through the Coffee Project, representing the highest participation rate of any denomination in this Equal Exchange interfaith program, and generating about $17,000 per year to support human rights initiatives in coffee-growing countries through the Small Farmer Fund.

The Coffee Project has served as an entry point for educating and engaging UU congregations on fair trade and broader economic justice issues.

UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, Fla.

First Parish Church of Weston, Mass.

First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, N.Y.

 

Gale Parmentier belongs to the UU Fellowship in Vero Beach, Fla., which has participated in advancing fair trade since 2002. Since then, the congregation has expanded its efforts from a small corner of the fellowship building to include an educational component, a holiday bazaar, and a commitment to serving only fairly traded beverages at all their congregational functions.

According to Parmentier, their mission is to “teach, promote, and inspire fellow members of this Fellowship in the exercise of our economic power based on the interrelated concepts of fair trade, social justice, and environmental responsibility.”

In Weston, Mass., UUSC Local Representative Lee Engler started selling a few bags of fairly traded coffee outside the sanctuary of First Parish Church. Four years later, he’s now shipping more than a third of a ton of fairly traded coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate bars to UU customers in and around Weston, and using this base to educate about fair trade principles and economic justice.

Increasing his church’s involvement with fair trade has been a “win-win-win-win – good for the farmers, good quality products for customers, low prices for our customers, and good for UUSC” according to Engler. He says, “It’s been great for our members and especially to those who are thinking about joining our church that there’s a manifestation of our principles standing outside the sanctuary every Sunday.”

Fair trade is also a cornerstone of UU religious education at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Elizabeth Lain Schell, director of religious education, leads UU kids in a comprehensive “Jubilant Justice” curriculum for Pre-K through 8th grade that emphasizes the joy of service, and includes a 6-week module engaging 6th-8th graders in fair trade learning - including storytelling, skits, arts, and social justice projects, including “The Chocolate Game” and a “Fair/Unfair Trading Card” activity.

Schell connects religious education and activism, explaining, “Our youth, like most adult UUs, had heard of fair trade because UUSC promoted the use of fair trade coffee during fellowship hour. But like our adults, our youth didn’t really understand why they should think seriously about how and what they spend their money on. I thought, if kids could begin to comprehend how their locally spent dollars impact people half way across the globe...well, what better way for them to truly see our 7th principle in action?”

Read more about how UU congregations are engaging in fair trade: "Fair trade coffee gives congregations a lift."

“If we do not start educating our youth about the connections of social activism, economic justice, and the day-to-day decisions they make in life (even the candy bar they buy at the corner store), then how can we ever expect to transform our world? Religious education, to me, is all about helping our children and youth see how they can put their faith in action; how they can live out their beliefs in their day to day.”
~ Elizabeth Lain Schell, DRE
1st Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn