Students who stop by a university coffee shop may soon have another reason to feel good about their drink: all of the coffee served will be Fair Trade coffee.
The Students of Georgetown, Inc. began offering Fair Trade as an option in all its cafes on campus in the fall of 2002 after a campaign by Georgetown Students for Fair Trade. Currently, Midnight Mug and Uncommon Grounds sell exclusively Fair Trade coffee, and More Uncommon Grounds is likely to make the switch in the next week, according to Adam Giblin (SFS ‘06), Chief Operating Officer for the Corp.
“The Corp previously was not in the place to provide only Fair Trade to students,” Giblin said. “When I presented this plan to the board of directors last semester, it failed. We just couldn’t do it.”
This summer, the Corp found a new vendor online, Kaff? Magnum Opus. Giblin said the company manager drove to D.C. and showed Corp representatives the coffee in person.
“It’s a better coffee, a higher quality,” Corp CEO Jon Carpenter (MSB ‘06) said. “We’ve gotten comments from students, like ‘This coffee tastes great!’ Georgetown Students for Fair Trade was instrumental in this change, especially with research.”
Georgetown Students for Fair Trade has been lobbying for the use of exclusively Fair Trade coffee on campus for more than three years.
“This is a huge step, that we wish would have been taken sooner, but we’re super thrilled now and we want everyone to help us thank them for doing this,” Whitney McLeod (SFS ‘06) of Georgetown Students for Fair Trade said in an Sept. 3 e-mail to the group. “So when you get your coffee, let them know.”
Sales of Fair Trade products are growing rapidly in the United States. According to a report by the D.C.-based advocacy group Fair Trade Federation, sales of Fair Trade-certified products in North America hit 376 million dollars in 2004, mostly due to coffee sales.
“We think it’s a good model of business and helps people in developing countries sustain themselves and not just depend on us,” FTF representative Jaime Albee said. “Consumers are the ones that have the power to increase awareness by using their dollars.”
The move toward selling only Fair Trade coffee at Corp locations is an experiment, not a policy, Giblin said. However, he does not expect to change back in the foreseeable future. “The social difference is happening now, even if Joe Hoya doesn’t know what’s in his coffee, and that’s important to us,” he said.
