Club Review: Fair Trade Exeter

From Ecuadorian chocolate to bananas grown in the fields of Colombia, Fair Trade products are delectable as well as honest, and now, with guidance from the ESSO club Fair Trade Exeter, the Academy has officially become certified as a Fair Trade organization.Fair Trade USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that aids consumers in improving other people’s lives by purchasing fair-priced goods made by workers in sound working and living conditions. Fair Trade Exeter sells a variety of merchandise in Agora on Mondays and Thursdays during Meetings, and these products come from small, diverse communities all around the world.Upper Jeanne Olivier started Fair Trade Exeter last year when she came to Exeter and realized the community’s lack of knowledge regarding Fair Trade.“There was a Fair Trade club at my old school before coming to Exeter, and there was no group at Exeter, so I wanted to come here and make available for students what had been available for me,” Olivier said. “Before [joining] the program at my old school, I knew nothing about Fair Trade. I had seen the little tags in the grocery store, but I did not give it much thought. And then I realized what a great cause it is. It is not a charity—it really helps people in a sustainable way to get fair prices for their work.”Since then, the ESSO club has grown into a group of loyal members who attend meetings, ponder ideas for what goods to sell and enlighten the student body on the benefits of this practice.“At the beginning of every term, we brainstorm new products that we can sell to students and faculty,” Olivier said. “The goal is, through the sale of these products, to educate the Exeter community. Anytime someone comes and buys something, we make sure they know what Fair Trade is and hopefully, we can change their consuming and shopping habits by showing them that Fair Trade is a valid option available to them.”Lower Trishna Mohite, a member of Fair Trade Exeter, highlighted the important role the organization plays on different continents around the world.“I don’t think many people here in Exeter, or even the United States, know how purchasing a Fair Trade certified product can help the global community,” Mohite said. “What sets Fair Trade apart from other non-profit social organizations, is that it is not just a charity. It enables for the producers and farmers, particularly in developing countries, to make an effect in their community through the sales of their own products.”She continued, noting the efficiency of the program. “When someone purchases a Fair Trade certified product, the funds go directly back to community development, such as building successful businesses, providing education, protecting local environments and supporting health care,” Mohite said.Club members were not content with just selling products and recently, the group underwent a three-step program to become acknowledged by Fair Trade USA and join a greater community of schools and universities that have similar initiatives.“We needed to educate the community about Fair Trade, create a Fair Trade group and sell products,” Olivier said. “About ten schools participated in the trial, and out of those schools four were retained as having completed the goals, and we were one of them. Now we are officially a Fair Trade school, and Friday we have an assembly speaker coming from Fair Trade USA to hand out a certificate saying so.”This stamp of approval will allow Exeter to converse with other academic institutions on improving the awareness and prevalence of Fair Trade on campus.“Now, we are connected with a bunch of other schools and universities that have the same label,” Olivier said. “ With our certification, we will have a lot of credibility and will be able to talk to universities about where their products are from and how they obtained them. It puts us in the Fair Trade community more concretely.”Exeter’s Fair Trade Organization has already achieved some of their key goals, and now they are looking for more physical ways of implementing their objectives and securing the group’s importance on campus.“Most recently we have helped Exeter become a Fair Trade certified school, but we are currently working with the dining halls to provide certain Fair Trade foods and are organizing special events that will be held later this spring,” Mohite said.Olivier added, “We are trying to get Fair Trade into the dining halls and in certain classes in a way that introduces the school to the organization, so that even if the club ends up dying, it will at least remain at Exeter in the dining halls, the classrooms and Grill.”