As Kiwis, we love coffee and we love tea. As Christians, we love having a cuppa at church. Before church, during church, after church, in our small groups, at our catch-ups… you get my point, we love it. For most of us, we think nothing of the cost; our caffeine fix is firmly entrenched in our daily life, our daily ritual. Now ask yourself, how much does a cup of coffee really cost?

In the last decade, international trade regulations have driven coffee prices to a 30-year low and to the point that only three cents from a $3.50 cup of coffee actually reaches the farmers who grow the beans. It’s Ecclesiastes 31 for the modern era: “The poor forever toils, barely making a living, and then, leaving off, is poorer than ever.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

How can we help you?

New Zealand Christian Network (visionnetwork), World Vision and the Fairtrade Association have teamed up to do something about poverty and the oppression of the poor alongside you. Fairtrade ensures better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. Fairtrade offers consumers a powerful way to execute justice and help reduce poverty through their everyday shopping. Fairtrade is good news for the poor and good stewardship of church funds.

Have a Fairtrade cuppa at Church
For Fairtrade Fortnight this year, it would be great to have all NZ churches on board, swapping for Fairtrade; your usual tea for Fairtrade tea, your usual chocolate for Fairtrade chocolate, and your usual coffee for a Fairtrade coffee. Each and every swap will be a vote of support by Christians of NZ for poor farmers in the developing world to get a fairer deal.

As Paul said, “here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, drinking coffee, supermarket shopping, going-to-work and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your morning caffeine fix that you buy it each day without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.” (Romans 12:1)

This is a very real and simple change we, as Christians, can make to further God’s call to help eliminate poverty and injustice in the world.

FREE coffee to the first 100 churches!

To help you become a Fairtrade church, we are offering FREE coffee to the first 100 churches who email World Vision. We will also supply you with an Action Pack containing:

• a bulletin insert about Fairtrade
• a procurement guide
• a short DVD for your notices
• home group studies
• posters
• sermon talking points about justice for the poor

All you need to do is email advocacy@worldvision.org.nz by April 21 and specify which coffee you want:

• 500g Instant coffee by Scarborough Fair
• 1kg plunger grind by Café Prima
• 1kg roasted beans by Celcius Coffee

So, be in quick to receive your free Fairtrade coffee and Action Pack. If you are not among the first 100 churches to email World Vision but still want to participate in Fairtrade Fortnight, you may purchase your action pack and coffee at $35 from World Vision at the above email address. Become a Fairtrade church and be part of a globally aware community united in the fight against extreme poverty.

World Vision New Zealand congratulates Cadbury on its announcement to go for Fairtrade Certification, on the understanding this will deliver real change for tens of thousands of Ghanaian cocoa farmers and their families.

Internationally Cadbury is committing to Fairtrade, which means when we buy our Fairtrade-certified chocolate hit we can be assured the farmer / producer has been given a fair deal. Fairtrade explicitly prohibits the use of forced or slave labour, requires support for community development, and has a system of independent auditing.

Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate is expected to hit our supermarkets in time for Easter 2010. Just look for the Fairtrade-Certified label!

The livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers around the world are based on production of basic commodities like coffee and cocoa. While consumers pay increasingly more on these, the prices middlemen pay for raw products have fallen and farming families reap the consequences.

Barely able to survive, parents must make decisions about their expenses, including schooling, in many cases requiring their children to help on the farm to increase their productive capacity.

Consumers can ensure the farmers growing the coffee they drink and chocolate they eat earn enough to sustain their families.

Fair trade ensures farmers get paid a decent amount for what they produce. It forms a transparent chain between consumers and producers, and keeps each link in the chain accountable.

The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand (World Vision is a member) and Fairtrade Labelling Australia and New Zealand bring together Australisian groups involved in fair trade, promote fair trade and regulate the use of the FAIR TRADE Label in Australia and New Zealand.

The Fair Trade Association together with other international organisations regulate fair trade, ensuring producers get paid a minimum price which is above or equal to the market rate plus a Fairtrade Investment Premium for social and economic investment in the community. The premium allows communities to improve schools, health centres and methods of production, helping them to continue to develop.

Fair trade is a growing movement. So far in New Zealand you can purchase chocolate, coffee, handicrafts, spices, sugar and tea.

Checking for the FAIRTRADE Label is a quick way of making sure your purchase is helping families, not hurting them.

You can get your fair trade coffee fix at a number of independent cafes, as well as Esquires and Sierra. If your favourite cafe doesn't use fair trade or doesn't know, ask them why. Click here to print cards to encourage your cafe to go fair trade.

About 20 different coffee roasters sell fair trade grinds. Many organics stores also stock fair trade coffee and chocolate.

Scarborough Fair brand of fair trade coffee and tea is available at Countdown, First Choice, Foodtown, New World, Supervalue and Woolworths.

Trade Aid sells chocolate, coffee, handicrafts, hot chocolate, spices, sugar and tea.

More information about stockists is available from Fair trade association of Australia and NZ www.fta.org.nz