Starting their day with 'a cup of kindness' 

By SHERRY HALBROOK
What if making the world a better place was as easy as drinking a cup of coffee?

It is; Just ask the approximately 850 members of PEF Division 169 who work in Albany.

They are now drinking “Fair Trade” coffee thanks to Vinny DiTrapano of Vinny’s Cafe at 625 Broadway in Albany, home of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation main office.

The members pay a nickel more to drink a cup of coffee that’s changing the lives of farmers and their communities far away.

At the members’ request, DiTrapano switched from one Green Mountain Coffee blend to another that uses Fair-Trade-certified beans.

The Fair Trade Project of the Labor-Religion Coalition educates the public about how Fair Trade links the consumers of high quality Fair Trade products such as coffee, chocolate and tea with the farmers in Third World countries who produce them and ensures the producers receive a fair price and living wage.
 
No forced or child labor is allowed. Environmentally sustainable production and safe, healthy working conditions are used. Women’s work is properly valued and rewarded, and the farmers can count on long-term markets and fair prices.

“I had no idea what Fair Trade coffee was, but I’ve learned it’s a more humane way to harvest the coffee,” DiTrapano said.

Still, he worried customers might not like the coffee or might balk at paying the extra five cents.
“I was concerned,” DiTrapano said, “but sales have been steady.”

“In the past year, Vinny went green, switching from styrofoam to paper cups and making other changes,” said PEF Executive Board member Karl Berger of Division 169.

Last fall, Susan DuBois, a former Division 169 steward and a supporter of the Labor-Religion Coalition, suggested to Berger they invite Fair Trade Coordinator Anne Kelly to speak at a division meeting.

“The members were wonderfully receptive,” Kelly said. “We’re thrilled with their commitment to social issues. Fair Trade issues, like union issues, are really human rights issues.

“Fair Trade stabilizes producers’ incomes and helps them get pre-harvest loans,” she said.

The farmers create co-ops that invest in roads, schools and clean water. They gain political power and respect, and their children are freed from unending labor to go to school.

“I visited a cacao (beans ground to make cocoa for chocolate) co-op in the Dominican Republic,” Kelly said, “that has transformed the community and totally transformed the industry. It started with 700 farmers and now has 9,000.”

The Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in West Africa is the world’s largest supplier of cocoa. But young men and boys are trafficked and brutalized as slave labor among the cacao and cotton plantations.

“Switching to Fair Trade products is something well worth checking into,” DuBois said. “It’s become practical, and it’s not that difficult.”

For more information, go online to www.labor-religion.org or call (800) 342-9810, ext. 6294.