wfn.org | Coffee Co-op Looking Beyond Lutherans

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

28-July-1999 
99247 
 
    Coffee Co-op Looking Beyond Lutherans 
    Fair-Trade Group Hopes to Keep Presbyterians Full of Beans 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
    A fair-trade gourmet-bean-dealing cooperative, having all but cornered 
the market in caffeine-dependent Lutherans, is now targeting coffee-hour 
Presbyterians. 
 
    Equal Exchange, an employee-owned company headquartered in Canton, 
Mass., sells ground and whole-bean coffees to more than 1,300 Lutheran 
congregations nationwide, with marketing and educational help from Lutheran 
World Relief. "Coffee and Lutherans seem to go  together," the group says 
in its promotional materials. 
 
    Lutherans of the Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod and the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) account for about five 
percent of Equal Exchange's $6 million in annual sales. The other 90 
percent sells through supermarkets, cafes, consumer cooperatives and 
natural-food stores  from New York City to Gig Harbor, Wash. 
 
    Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, now hopes to repeat its church-coffee 
marketing success with Presbyterians and other non-Lutheran Christians. 
 
    Equal Exchange buys coffees - and, since last November, teas - directly 
from small cooperatives of impoverished farmers in Latin America, Africa 
and Asia, eliminating several levels of brokers and other middlemen (known 
as "coyotes" for obvious reasons) and paying a guaranteed fair price - 
typically much more than the small farmers can get from commercial traders. 
 
    Equal Exchange buys most of its coffee from farmer-owned cooperatives 
in Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru and Guatemala. Its 
products are known as fairly traded commodities - and are certified as such 
by Transfair USA, an independent member group of a worldwide organization, 
the Fair Trade Labeling Organization. The idea is to ensure that some of 
the economic benefits of coffee are enjoyed by the people who grow the 
beans. 
 
    About 20 million people, mostly in countries near the equator, 
cultivate coffee; it is one of the most heavily traded commodities in the 
world, and the leading source of foreign exchange in Latin America and the 
Caribbean. Equal Exchange commits itself to pay a fair price with a 
guaranteed minimum; to work in long-term partnerships with democratically 
run farmers' cooperatives; to buy coffee directly from the farmers; to 
provide advance credit to farmers; and to support ecologically sustainable 
farming practices. 
 
    Equal Exchange sells coffee in vacuum-packed half-pound packages, whole 
bean or drip grind, in regular, decaf, flavored and organic blends. It also 
wholesales cases of 20 packages for use in church, home or office. 
Wholesale prices range roughly from $5 to $7 per pound; the coffees sell at 
retail for $8 or $9 a pound. Equal Exchange ships by UPS within 48 hours. 
 
    The concept is similar to that behind SERRV International, a group that 
markets handmade products made by low-income craftsmen and women from more 
than 30 nations - and annually sponsors a bazaar at the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
 
    Equal Exchange is not a Lutheran enterprise. It also gets assistance, 
including low-cost financing, from several other religious groups, 
including the Adrian Dominican Sisters, the Marinist Sharing Fund, the 
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and the Society of the Holy Child 
Jesus. Its coffee-marketing partnership with American Lutherans started in 
Wisconsin in 1997. 
 
    Terri Speirs, a project coordinator for Lutheran World Relief, said of 
the coffee program: "We piloted it in Wisconsin for a couple of reasons. 
First of all, there are a lot of Lutherans who live in Wisconsin. And 
secondly, we thought it would be a more conservative base of Lutherans to 
work with, and we wanted to hear what critics might say of the project." 
 
    The project was an immediate hit. There are now more than 170 Lutheran 
congregations and other entities in Wisconsin that buy coffee from Equal 
Exchange. The project is equally successful in Minnesota and Michigan. 
Several Lutheran synods have passed resolutions encouraging congregations 
to buy fairly traded coffee. 
 
    "When we started serving Equal Exchange coffee, coffee consumption went 
up," said the Rev. Timothy Bernard, a co-pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran 
Church in Champion, Mich. "The coffee was better. People were coming back 
for a second and third cup of coffee, and were sitting down and getting to 
know their neighbors better. ... In the Lutheran Church, coffee drinking 
has almost sacramental status. ..." 
 
    "Equal Exchange is like drinking a cup of justice." 
 
    "We see fair trade as a faith issue," said Speirs, the project 
coordinator. "We think that Christ tells us to treat our neighbors fairly, 
and that means considering the value of their work and their products. 
Lutherans consider coffee precious; if there's no coffee, people won't come 
to the meeting. And we need to consider the people who grew it as just as 
precious." 
 
    For many coffee growers and their families, Equal Exchange provides 
access to health care, education and business training programs. 
 
    And some say support for economic justice actually makes the coffee 
taste better. 
 
    Presbyterian congregations can become involved by serving Equal 
Exchange coffee at fellowship hours and other events and by starting 
coffee-buying co-operatives that order in bulk. 
 
    For an order form or for more information about fair trade, write to 
Erbin Crowell, Church Program Coordinator, Equal Exchange, 251 Revere 
Street, Canton, MA 02021, or call 781-830-0302, extension 231. 

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