Contact: fairtrade@globalexchange.org

April 10, 2002

At UConn we have stepped up the campaign for Fair Trade, after a semester-long lull after 9/11 in which a lot of people worked on anti-war issues. But now we have gotten a class on Global Militarism and Human Survival to pick up the campaign as their class project and they've done wonders. They've met with every dining hall manager on campus and the main dining services office. They've also gotten a lot of signatures on a petition for Fair Trade. We're waiting for final confirmation, but we think that UConn will soon be serving Fair Trade coffee in all of the campus dining halls, which is a lot of coffee.

The next thing is to target the coffee houses on campus. They are Cafe Origin, which is owned by Kraft, which is owned by Philip-Morris. They have actually run a short piece on Fair Trade in their internal newsletter, thanks to one student, and they have said they'll serve Fair Trade coffee for a taste-test, or allow us to serve it near their shops. They're afraid of losing the UConn contract, by which they run about 5 coffee houses on campus.

December 2001

Not much going on this semester as a result of 9/11 and state repression, etc... But we recently had a Fair Trade coffee house to highlight Fair Trade tea and coffee as well as information on the "war on terrorism" and all proceeds went to RAWA - Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan.

Yes, Philip Morris is still serving coffe on our campus.

March 26, 2001 We are still doing the Fair Trade coffee campaign at UConn. We are trying to get Dining Services to serve Fair Trade coffee (of the Equal Exchange mark). We also have cafes on campus which are corporate-controlled (by Kraft) and they serve evil coffee. But they are not in this round of demands.

I received a video (Santiago's story) last week. Thanks to whomever sent it. I would like whatever else you'd like to send, although it's not necessary as we have some stuff already. We do tablings every week and have a petition underway. We want to raise consciousness about the Fair Trade movement and coffee.

November 17, 2000 I am a grad student at UCONN and a long-time drinker of your coffees. A number of students on campus are interested in getting coffee shops and dining halls here to serve Fair Trade coffees, at least as an alternative if not a replacement of the exploitative coffees. Brown University converted recently, and we'd like to do the same. Can you help us? What steps should we take? I have spoken with coffee shop managers and the dining services people. They expressed mild interest. We could do an informational campaign and tasting tables to arouse interest. I'd love to do that. We could get a speaker about Fair Trade coffee and the evils of exploitations, (sweatshops in the field), etc...