March 13, 2003 (Brianna)
Hi. I just wanted to check in to let you know how our March 6th event went and what our plan looks like for the next couple of weeks. Today we our having a meeting to debrief the event and look into our next steps. We are going to talk about working with Crossroads (our coffee cafe on campus) to promote the fair trade coffee that they have. We will brainstorm this afternoon about that and talk about future events like the March 6th one.
I felt that our info booth went really well. We had a group of people around the table talking about fair trade, while recruiting others to come over and check it out. Generally, people were interested in taking more information even when they didn't have time to talk. We also had some people sign petitions. It was a good start...still fairly small, but good for our first table.
February 28, 2003 (Brianna)
USF's Fair Trade Coffee Campaign is a newly formed organization. Linda Aguilar and Julia Keirzac began our campaign in October of 2002 after the announcement that USF's coffee shop was switching from mostly fair trade coffee to a supplier that has very few fair trade blends. Our Erasmus project, a living-learning community that explores various issues of social justice and emphasizes community service, had been discussing globalization, sweat shops and fair trade in class. As part of our Erasmus class, students have separated into action groups and spend time volunteering and/or working on a social justice issue that concerns them. Students are working at St. Anthony's Foundation, volunteering at Lyric, tutoring children and adults, working on a theatrical production with day laborers, and Linda, Julia and I have been working with Global Exchange on fair trade coffee.
With the help of Global Exchange, we have been able to begin our fair trade coffee campaign at USF. The fall semester of 2002 was spent getting organized and learning as much as we could. We have gotten a lot of information from Global Exchange and we learned at lot at the Green Festival. Also during the fall and winter months, our fair trade organization made presentations to many university organizations and clubs. Our major goal for last semester was to educate groups on campus about fair trade and what students can do to support and or take an active role in the campaign. We now have three coordinating members and 17 students that are involved in the project. This semester, our goals are to continue spreading the word on campus. We are currently in the process of planning a Fair Trade Coffee Day on campus. We will be having an informational table set up in Harney Plaza during the day which will provide flyers, packets of information and petitions to sign. We will spend time informing people and engaging in conversation about fair trade. We are also planning to have a coffee taste testing, comparing Folgers to a delicious fair trade blend. Our major goals for this semester are to make sure USF knows about fair trade and to work with the university and the cafeterias and coffee shop to ensure that USF provides fair trade coffee and that students are aware of what they are consuming.
February 22, 2003 (Brianna)
I am not sure our group will be able to get a table/permit and organize a whole event for March 6th but we have been talking all semester about such a day and would like to have something at USF to raise awareness about Fair Trade. We are thinking of having a Folger's vs. Fair Trade taste testing. We are also thinking of creating and passing out informational flyers as well as coupons for fair trade products, as well as petitioning.
March 26, 2001 (Michael Duffy)
We have had some success with our Fair Trade coffee campaign. Our food service provider has agree to sell it and is doing so. Also our student run coffee shop serves it too.
We are currently working on an educational piece that continues to educate the community on the availibility of FTC. At this time clients for our catering service need to request FTC.
December 12, 2000
Here at USF we currently have two venues that are selling fair trade coffee. The student run "Crossroads Cafe" sell it through their vender which is Tully's. Our student food service is run my Marriott they have a contract with Starbuck's and this semester have sold it upon request. Next semester they will be promoting it all all of their functions I am told. We have a group of students working on the educational component so that departments get into the habit of requesting this coffee for their catering
