wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Importing peace for Christmas

[newsservice <newsservice@PCUSA.ORG>]

You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS

email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

To ensure continued delivery, please add newsservice@pcusa.org
to your address book or safe senders list.

========================================

This story and photo available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08880<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08880

>Importing peace for Christmas

Presbyterian group sells fair-trade olive oil from Palestine

>by Pat Cole Associate, Mission Communications

LOUISVILLE - As the Christmas season approaches, Peter Mann
hopes his fellow Presbyterians will think about the land of
Jesus' birth when they consider gift ideas. A Palestinian
woman reaches for olives in a tree. A Palestinian woman
harvests olives used to produce "Import Peace" olive oil.
Photo by Cynthia Arnold

Mann is president of Import Peace [www.importpeace.org], a
non-profit organization that sells high quality, organic
olive oil produced in Palestine.  "A lot of church members
buy it to give away as gifts," says the Presbyterian elder
from Lake Shore, MN. "It is an alternative gift that is
fair-trade certified."

Mann and four other Presbyterians founded Import Peace
after taking a trip to Palestine in 2006 with the
Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.  Mann says the group of
100 was moved by the economic hardships of life in the
Occupied Territories. Their trip included visits with
families whose poverty deprived them of nutritious meals.

"We had an elevated sense of pain and frustration for what
we had seen, felt and experienced with these people," Mann
says. They asked their Palestinian hosts how they could
help. The Presbyterians were told of the need to sell
Palestinian products.

"That's when we thought about trying to bring olive oil
from Palestine to the United States and try to bring a
little bit of economic improvement among the Palestinians,"
Mann says. "But I think more importantly we want to raise
the awareness among churches and peacemaking groups as to
what they could and should be doing to support people in
that part of the world."

In addition to  Mann, the organizers of Import Peace are
two other people from Cross Lake Presbyterian Church in
Minnesota Valleys Presbytery, Arloa Ellertson and her son,
Chad (a high school sophomore when he visited Palestine),
and two Pennsylvanians, Cynthia Arnold and her daughter,
Ebony Britton.

As a retired sales and marketing professional, Mann knew
that research and a business plan would be crucial to the
venture's success. A year of data collection included trips
to Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto to visit other groups
importing Palestinian olive oil. "We got resounding support
and encouragement to go forward," he says.

Mann lent the organization startup funds and operations
began last fall. During the months leading up to Christmas,
Import Peace sold 99 of the first 100 cases ordered. "This
year we have 350 cases in the warehouse and we hope that
will get us through the holidays," Mann says.

Import Peace promotes the olive oil by personal contact
with congregations and through their Web site.

Most sales, he says, are during the Christmas and Easter
seasons. A case of 12 bottles can be purchased via the
Internet for $215 including shipping. Congregations
frequently act as distributors by purchasing the olive oil
by the case and selling the 750 milliliter bottles to
individuals. Three bottles can be purchased from the Web
site for $70 including shipping.

The fair-trade network of farmers and distributors boosts
the Palestinian economy by assuring producers a reasonable
price for their products.

In addition to helping Palestinians by purchasing wholesale
quantities of olive oil, Import Peace sends $2 from each
bottle it sells to three charities in Palestine. They
include the Palestine Fair Trade Association, which funds a
micro loan program for aspiring entrepreneurs, college
scholarships for the children of farmers, and an olive tree
planting program to replace trees destroyed by the building
of the security barrier; the Palestinian Agricultural
Relief Committee, an advisory service that helps farmers
increase their yield; and Ahli Arab Christian Hospital,
which serves the strife-torn Gaza area.

Mann, a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s
Israel/Palestine Mission Network
[www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org], says the group has
been an enthusiastic promoter of Import Peace.  Mann's
congregation, Cross Lake Presbyterian Church
[www.crosslakepresbyterian.org], is acting as fiscal agent
while Import Peace pursues 501 C-3 status with the Internal
Revenue Service.

Some customers, Mann says, buy the olive oil because it's a
"neat gift." Ultimately, however, he wants attitudes to
change through the work of Import Peace.

"Our real goal is to increase awareness of the people in
America to the plight of Palestinians," Mann says, adding
that he wants Americans to "understand that every Middle
Easterner is not a terrorist."

========================================

You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS

email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

To unsubscribe, send a blank message to

mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.

To update your email address, send your old email address
and your new one to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.

>For questions or comments, send an email to
>mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.

To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/

>Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
>100 Witherspoon Street
>Louisville, KY 40202
>(888) 728-7228