The May 2005 issue of the Record featured a cover story on fair trade – the practice of paying farmers a fair wage for their work. The article focused on coffee (which ranks second to oil in world trade), but there are many other fair trade products available, many of which can be delivered right to your door. In an effort to encourage congregations to switch to fairly traded coffee, the Record announced a contest to award those who made the switch. The response was tremendous, with contestants submitting creative and touching artwork, poetry, essays and songs. We even heard from congregations that had undertaken fair trade projects but didn't manage to enter the contest. Leaside Church in Toronto was one such congregation. As a direct response to the Record article, Cathy Finlay, a Leaside member for more than 30 years and an elder for 20, brought the issue to session. She urged them to support social justice by serving fairly traded coffee at Sunday coffee hour. "Being a farmer's daughter, I'm concerned about farmers being treated fairly so they can have an improved quality of life," Finlay told the Record. "It's a social justice issue for me."
The session agreed to make the switch during the fall, and Finlay hopes they will agree to continue long after (a decision was pending at press time). The congregation has enjoyed the specialty coffee served on Sundays, and 21 families order coffee, tea and hot chocolate through the church – an initiative supported by Glebe Church, Toronto, which already practiced this. By partnering with another congregation when orders are small, money is saved, as the cost is lower for large orders. "I hope very much that we have this as a continual project," said Finlay. Like the congregation at Leaside, many Presbyterian congregations have decided to support fair trade, and told us so via the contest.
Choosing a winner was nearly impossible. Our panel of three judges – Amy MacLachlan, staff writer for the Record, Annemarie Klassen, general secretary, Education for Discipleship and Mary Beth McLean with International Ministries – were overwhelmed by the submissions. In the end they had to choose somebody.
Other submissions to the Mocha Mission contest will be published in future issues of the Record.
1st PLACE
Get the Bean!
Words and Music by David Buckley
Director of Music
Knox Presbyterian Church, Dundas, Ont.
The church will receive two pounds of fair trade coffee each month for a year from Alternative Grounds, in Toronto.
Chorus:
Get the bean, got to get the bean, got to get the bean,
Got to get the bean, got to get the bean,
Got to get the bean, got to get the bean,
Got to get the bean, got to get the bean,
Got to get the bean!
What goes into your percolator
Is more than you might think of right away
'Cause the folks who work for the source of that great flavour
Might never make more than a pittance for their pay
Their lives are caught being stuck in the middle
With mouths to feed, it's so hard to break away
But you can help at a cost so very little
If you look for the label that clearly says "fair trade"
CHORUS
The thirst you have for your cup of flavour
Can never compare with their thirst for better days
So give them thanks with true value for their labour
The joy is rich with the beans that say "fair trade"
Bridge:
We all can help in this situation
For those who now are little more than slaves
It all adds up with no limitations
We all will win with the beans that say "fair trade"
CHORUS
2nd PLACE
Quilt
by Barbara J. Ormston
on behalf of St. Paul's, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Ms. Ormston wrote, "The interlocking circles of café au lait, café crème, coffee and black burlap represent the chains of economic slavery which exists in the absence of fair trade. All Christians should fervently embrace and fully support the economic principle of fair trade." The church will receive two pounds of fair trade coffee and a travel mug from Bean North Roasting Company, Whitehorse, Yukon.
3rd PLACE
Office Coffee Mission Project scrapbook
submitted by Lorraine Swaile
Richmond Presbyterian Church
Richmond, B.C.
While many of the other entrants were personal efforts on behalf of a church, this was one of very few efforts in which the whole congregation seemed to get involved. The church will receive a bag of coffee and a mug from Ten Thousand Villages, Oakville and Yonge St., Toronto.
4th PLACE
The Fair Trade Coffee Song
Lyrics and music by Henrietta Beattie
on behalf of St. Columba, Belleville, Ont.
The church will receive a ceramic teapot from Ten Thousand Villages on Danforth Ave., in Toronto.
Are you switching to the coffee,
That will help the growers, too?
Farmers need us to support them
For their work that's fair and true
Drink the coffee that is Fair Trade
You will help abundantly.
Are you switching to the coffee
That will help the growers too?
Drink the coffee that is "Fair Trade"
Won't you switch to help them, too?
Feeding families, teaching children,
Working lad, now take a stand!
Every purchase is important
Has an impact on their lives
Drink the coffee that is "Fair Trade"
Won't you switch to help them too?
Buy the coffee that is "Fair Trade"
Tell your neighbours and your friends
The producers need a fair wage
For the cash crops sold to you
Community programs, environmental practics,
Guaranteed markets, shelter and food.
Buy the coffee that is "Fair Trade"
Tell you neighbours and your friends.
Click here to hear the Fair Trade Chorus sing this song. (2.9MB MP3 file).
Click here for more info on the Fair Trade Chorus.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Don's Coffee Pot
by Claire Ross Dunn
Morningside-High Park,
Toronto
Don Jennison attended our church. I say "our church", but it's not because I'm a member: I have often joked with Morningside-High Park's minister, Will Ingram, that I am the church's token heathen. He always laughs and tells me that I am the most church-going heathen he knows. I married a Presbyterian boy, son of a minister, who was son of a minister, who was son of a minister. And yet no one on my husband's side has ever pressured me to become a card-carrying member, and I've appreciated the freedom to continue to ask questions. I have preferred to remain undeclared.
Don Jennison, a retired school principal, and old enough to be my father, was the first person to really connect with me at Morningside. I started a penny rolling extravaganza to raise money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation – and for several Sundays, Don sat right by my side, rolling pennies. Over the course of our chatting and rolling, chatting and rolling, I discovered that Don had never been a member of Morningside either – he too had many questions that were unanswered, and he preferred his adherent status.
And yet there we both were, Sunday after Sunday. Up until then, I had found myself wondering if there were a real place for me in church if I didn't officially declare myself; the minister's soft joking aside, Don taught me that there was.
Not long after that, Don's Mission and Outreach Committee bought Fair Trade coffee to be served at coffee time. I praised them for this – he said that if I liked that, I should come on board. He felt the committee needed a type like me (whatever that is). I turned him down-politely-said I was overcommitted as it was. Every Sunday after that, over a cup of Fair Trade coffee, Don and I talked about justice issues. Freedom. Fairness. He eventually wore me down: I allowed him to make me an 'honorary member' of Mission and Outreach. I never attended a meeting, but he slipped me the minutes once a month with a smile.
Don died in April after a long battle in hospital. Everything I have heard about his long and busy life told me he was a man of action, so I've been looking for a way to act, in Don's name.
Morningside-High Park is launching a fundraiser in the fall of 2005 called Don's Coffee Pot. We are selling Fair Trade coffee at bulk prices to raise money to build a school in Africa, hopefully for AIDS orphans, in Don's name (seeing as he was a principal, it feels like a fitting tribute). We are also, of course, continuing to drink Fair Trade coffee every Sunday – but if we were to receive the Presbyterian Record's one year's worth of Fair Trade coffee, we'd put it toward Don's Coffee Pot. Get the ball rolling. Because Don was a man of action – and now I'm changing my status from honorary to active, in his name.
