Finally Legit on that Fair Trade Tip!
Katrina Anderson
WAKE UP IOWA has always been conscious of buying Fair Trade. It is part of our mission to better both our community and the community that provides our beans.We have a wonderful distributor who is transparent about where our beans originate. They give us detailed information about every bag of coffee we buy, and we were buying something like 95% Fair Trade beans prior to certification.
We are so happy to unveil our Fair Trade certification on our newest bags, in stores now. What does this mean?
It is important to acknowledge the privilege we have in importing this product from economies that generally are not as stable as ours. There is a premium ($) added to Fair Trade coffees that is returned to the community via programs set up on their end to aid the people there, for example, an education fund, financing programs, or organic farming training/set up, to name a few.
Nothing has really changed, except that we went through the process to legitimize and formalize our Fair Trade purchasing habit. We are now supporting the endeavor of the Fair Trade organization by committing to purchase FT as much as we have been, paying a relatively small fee, and continuing to find the most equitable and delicious beans we can for all our wonderful Iowans (or Iowans at heart) :)
-Katrina