• Fair Trade Travels and Other Ventures
• An Eye-Opening Trip to Guatemala by Bill Harris
• Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Coffee Program
• Café Campesino Community Caravan
• Customer Spotlight: Manna Grocery and Deli
• La Esmeralda Stove Project
• Test Your Coffee Knowledge
• Quote of the Month
• Past Issues of Fair Grounds

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by Bill Harris

Recently returned from two months in Guatemala, Café Campesino’s president and founder Bill Harris offers a sobering summary of the time he spent in Guatemala, addressing critical issues central to the fair trade of coffee and its ability to benefit producers now and into the future.

Have you ever stumbled through a work experience that shattered many of your past assumptions and left you asking yourself the fundamental questions — What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Is this working? I’ve just returned from two months in Guatemala unexpectedly burdened by these basic questions. My plan was simple: escape the office in Americus for a few months in order to relax and reflect on our coffee work, visit with producer cooperatives in Guatemala and Mexico, and take another stab at the language that continues to elude me. Well, some folks on Wall Street tossed me and the coffee cooperatives a huge curve ball.

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First of all, kudos to Geoffrey and “J” who pulled off another record-setting BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) event. Besides the quantity of coffee they served, Geoffrey and “J” were impressed by the number of people who participated this year and the warm hospitality they received from the folks in Madison, Georgia…thanks to all for another great BRAG gathering...see you this summer at BRAG 2005 from June 11th to the 19th!

Lee returned from the SCAA in Seattle on a Sunday night "red eye", spending all of his waking in-flight hours dreaming of a new 30 Kilo roaster to help him keep up with Café Campesino's growth.

On Friday, April 22nd, Lee and Tripp make a short journey down to Albany to serve samples and talk Fair Trade at Tommy Mac’s Country Store...one of the best natural foods markets in the state of Georgia.

On Saturday April 30th, Tripp and Lee will be at Manna Grocery & Deli (featured in this month’s Customer Spotlight) to participate in their 25th anniversary celebration, serve samples of Café Campesino coffee and, of course, talk fair trade with the good people of Tuscaloosa, Alabama!

Tripp will be peeling off on the return leg of the journey to Manna Grocery & Deli to attend the All Things Organic show in Chicago on May 1-2, where he will contemplate the possibility of a Café Campesino presence at next year’s show.

Café Campesino will be serving coffee on May 14th at this year’s Run Americus 5K & 1 Mile races to benefit New Horizons – Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sumter County. Some say that Bill will actually be seen running in this race, with Tripp trailing behind if he can break away from serving coffee long enough!

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Café Campesino is pleased to feature our friends at Manna Grocery & Deli in this month’s edition of Fair Grounds. Co-owners Frances Self Drennen and Earle Drennen opened Manna in 1980, building a truly extraordinary organic market and deli based on high standards, quality and integrity, elements they consider central to their personal and professional philosophy. At Manna Grocery & Deli you’ll find Café Campesino coffee, delicious natural foods, herbal and vitamin supplements, natural body and skin-care products, items such as handmade Nepalese jewelry for the hard-to-shop-for friend, windchimes, books on natural cooking, yoga and much more!

From April 25th through Saturday, April 30th, Manna celebrates 25 years of bringing the Tuscaloosa community the best in natural and organic products…all week long, Manna will be offering food demos and giving away food baskets, gift certificates, free lunches and Manna T-Shirts. Tripp and Lee will be at Manna on Saturday April 30th sampling Café Campesino coffee and discussing Fair Trade with Manna’s customers. Given Tuscaloosa’s beauty as a city and the fact that Manna will be hopping with organic activity, it’s worth taking the time to visit if you are in the area…Manna is the ideal place to celebrate all that is green and good! Manna Grocery & Deli is located at 2300 McFarland Boulevard, Suite 12 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Their telephone number is 205-752-9955. To learn more about Manna, visit their website at www.mannagrocery.com.

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While traveling in Guatemala, Bill Harris came across this unique and much-needed program to bring modern stoves to rural Guatemalan communities. 

Rural Guatemalan women cook over dangerous and inefficient open fires. The rapid consumption of firewood contributes to the country’s alarming deforestation rate, threatening both the survival of local endangered species such as the scarlet macaw and the ability of future generations to subsist on the same land. In the short term, there is no easy way for smoke to escape from the kitchens, so Guatemalan women and their children suffer sight and respiratory problems due to the cumulative effect of many hours spent cooking each day.

La Esmeralda is a multi-ethnic community of ex-refugees from the Guatemalan Civil War who returned to their home country ten years ago from the camps in Mexico. While they were able to negotiate the terms of their collective return and now own the land they live on, the community is beset by many economic, health, and environmental problems, such as those linked to the traditional open fires.

The women of La Esmeralda are intimately familiar with these problems, and have organized themselves to bring an improved-stove project to their community, with the hopes of clearing smoke from their kitchens and burning less wood. They have been working with non-profit HELPS International, who has received international recognition for their stove design. Unfortunately, the women cannot afford to pay the full cost of bringing the stoves to the community themselves. If you would like to help with this project, please email adam.nordell@gmail.com. To learn more about HELPS and the stoves, visit www.helpsinternational.com/programs/stove.php

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We're giving away coffee! 

Think you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair Grounds Trivia Contest. Click here for our question of the month. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

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