Equal Exchange, Fair Trade  & the UUSC Coffee Project

Equal Exchange & Murray Church

Murray Church provides Equal Exchange coffee & teas during Coffee Hour. We also sell a variety of Equal Exchange products, including coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa. When you purchase products from the Equal Exchange fair trade cooperative, this benefits farmers (pictured at right), Equal Exchange employees (a local company), Murray Church, and you.  Equal Exchange is a certified Fair Trade association, working directly with coffee growers. By serving Equal Exchange coffee, the Welcoming Committee is aligning our weekly Coffee and Fellowship Hour with our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes.  Equal Exchange coffees are certified Fair Traded, certified organic and certified kosher.

Equal Exchange Fast Facts:

• Equal Exchange is the leading Fair Trade brand of food and beverages in the United States.
• First US food or beverage company to adopt the international Fair Trade standards (1991)
• Fair Trade Certification: 100% of our coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and sugar is Fair Trade certified™ by TransFair USA.
• Credit: In 1995 Equal Exchange became one of the first US coffee importers to actively provide pre-harvest credit to the small farmer cooperatives. In 2006 we helped provide $1,911,000 in affordable credit to our coffee farmer partners.

Company Statistics & Financial Data:

• Average annual growth, 1986-2007: 32.2%
• 2007 Sales: $29,372,000
• 2006 net income: $537,442
• Full-time employees: 100
• Members of our worker cooperative: 77 (employees must work one year before becoming eligible to join)
• Equal Exchange is one of the largest worker cooperatives in the United States, and, we believe, the world’s largest worker-owned coffee roasting facility.

Offices:

• West Bridgewater, Massachusetts (HQ)
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Hood River, Oregon
• Seattle, Washington (café)

Awards:

• 2008 Fast Company Magazine’s “Social Capitalist” Award
• 2007 WorldBlu's World's Most Democratic Workplaces
• 2006 Oregon Tilth "Organic Handler of the Year"
• 2006 Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) Innovation Award
• 2000 Business Ethics Magazine Award for Stakeholder Relations
• 1999 Natural Products Expo Socially Responsible Business Award

Fair Trade includes:

• Direct purchasing from those who are poorly served by conventional markets, specifically small farmers and their co-operatives.
• Agreed upon commodity floor prices that provide for a dignified livelihood.
• A promise by importers to make affordable credit available to the farmer co-operatives.
• A worldwide network of non-profit certifying organizations.
• A fee paid by the importers and wholesalers to cover the cost of certification.
• A seal that assures consumers that a product was fairly traded.
   

The Fair Trade business model attempts to share the benefits more equitably across the supply chain. For coffee to be officially "Fair Trade Certified," coffee brokers and/or roasters must pay a premium price per pound for their coffee and source the coffee from farmer-managed cooperatives that meet certain labor and farming standards. Even though the companies pay a premium price for the coffee, most of them continue to be profitable.

 

Fair Trade in the U.S. When buying coffee and other fairly traded products in the United States, consumers need to be sure they are buying a certified fair trade product. If your bag carries the label at right (Fair Trade Certified), it has been certified by TransFair USA , the only independent fair trade certifying agency in the United States. The presence of this label means that every step involved in getting the coffee, tea, cocoa and sugar from the crop to your cup has been monitored by this neutral third party certifier, ensuring the farmers received a fair price. Many other faith-based, consumer and advocacy organizations are part of the larger movement for fair trade that is spreading across America.

Please show your support and purchase Equal Exchange products at church.
Every purchase benefits farmers, Equal Exchange employees, Murray Church, and you.

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