May 2002
We held a conference about sustainable coffee in April Here's an announcement in the Stanford Report: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/april17/coffeeco nf-410.html
We originally thought it would be easy to get our dining halls to switch to Fair Trade, but after hounding the purchasing manager with phone calls and emails, she let me know that they actually did do a taste test a month ago and they thought the Fair Trade coffee from Starbucks was really horrible tasting. They're now using it sometimes in the dining halls, but not on a regular basis and it is up to the hall managers to order it....so I don't know what to do. We don't want to push them to serve it if it tastes bad, and it is hard to argue with a taste test of the actual product. Is there any way to get Starbucks to increase the quality of the coffee? I worry that it is too late because now the purchasing manager and staff have a bad impression of Fair Trade (I explained that there are many Fair Trade coffees, etc., but it is still a bad first impression). Any suggestions?
Maybe the person at TransFair who works with the Starbucks account can look into how to improve the taste? I will email Sue Mecklenberg (who came to our coffee conference two weeks ago) and ask her if there is something she can do to get better quality Fair Trade coffee.
We also have talked to the Starbucks, Java city and Tully's on campus. It looks like the Starbucks and Java city will switch later this year or early next year (Sarah Crosby Baker is working on this). The woman who buys for Tully's says the Fair Trade line is significantly more expensive, but she is considering using it.
We are doing a Fair Trade Chocolate tasting event today, and asking people to request Fair Trade coffee at the campus cafes.
We also delivered packets and talked to four local roasters: Cafe Sofia Coffee Roasting Company 650-852-9220 Lytton Roasting Company 650-324-4320 Palo Alto Cafe 650-322-8644 Palo Alto Coffee Roasting Company 650-327-2233
They all seemed interested, but not committed to the idea. Only the woman at Palo Alto Coffee Roasting Company heard of FT before, and she said their buyer had problems with the quality. We probably won't do anything more with the local cafes this year. We gave them TransFair contact info if they wanted more info.
December 2001
This quarter we will have held 5 tablings - 3 in our main plaza, one at a green buildings conference, and one at a GreenPeace "solar party." We've flyered and passed out hundreds of pages of information. We've also got 100+ petition signatures. The best thing is that today, Thursday the 29th, we met with the buying manager for the dining halls on campus. She agreed to switch to Fair Trade through Starbucks' new program to allow campuses to switch at no extra charge. We're also looking into possibilities for switching instead to a smaller Fair Trade coffee raoster, but either way Stanford Dining will be Fair Trade in January!
They've also agreed to really promote it and we will help them do publicity and education for the "opening day." We also will make sure there is Fair Trade information next to every coffee makers, etc. Next quarter we plan to focus on campus cafes, campus houses and local roasters (three houses and one department are already Fair Trade). We'll also be making Fair Trade presentations at local churches. That's all for now!
-Merrian Fuller, StanFair outreach coordinator
November 2001
We just started the group this year. On Thursday we will meet with our dining hall representative for the first time - very exciting! I am curious what other groups are doing for the Fair TRade Coffee day of action...any plans yet?
May 30, 2001 Just to let you know, we now have an offical Stanford Fair Trade group. We're calling ourselves StanFair :o) It turns out that a girl here has a family Fair Trade coffee business in Santa Cruz (they're the ones who had that big party in front of their store that got on the radio a bunch). She also knows the people at Transfair personally and people in South/central America, etc. Next year we plan to do educational events, community outreach, salsa parties as benefits and to get Fair Trade in campus stores.
May 22, 2001 We had the Fair Trade Day selling table at Stanford yesterday and it went really well. We sold $500+ worth of products and were able to educate a lot of people. I'll send you the newspaper article (I think there is one in the Daily today, but I have to go check). Also, I spoke to a campus minister today and he gave me a lot of information about local churches that would be interested in Fair Trade.
19 Feb 2001
I'm trying to get a campaign started to push our coffee house at Stanford to brew fair trade coffee. They buy all their coffee from Starbucks and don't sell whole-beans. Would you suggest trying to talk to their management on campus? We've already gotten a lot of signed petitions, but I'm not sure the Coffee House management on campus has any authority in deciding whether to brew fair trade or not. Our group, Students for Environmental Action at Stanford is involved in another campaign right now, so we don't think we have the resources to pressure the administration to pass a Fair Trade purchasing restriction.
