Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition

Dedicated to raising awareness and building demand for Fair Trade in the Bay Area.
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10.30.2009

Divine Chocolate Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who helped out with our big Divine Chocolate giveaway yesterday outside area outside area retail locations. We unfortunately had to move the event do to increased ridership on the BART with the Bay Bridge closure. But not before we got a lot of great press with articles in the SFist, KNTV NBC Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle, the SF Examiner, Mission Mission and the SF Weekly.

Volunteers in Halloween costumes handed out over three thousand pieces of Fair Trade Certified chocolate from Divine along with literature about our campaigns to declare Oakland and Berkeley a Fair Trade Town. Together we raised awareness among thousands of Bay Area commuters and shoppers about the benefits of Fair Trade for farmers around the world. Check out the pictures below!













View the Full Set on Flickr

SFist, October 29, 2009
“Free Chocolate for BART Commuters Tonight”
http://sfist.com/2009/10/29/free_chocolate_for_bart_commuters_t.php

KNTV NBC Bay Area, October 29, 2009
“Being a Frustrated Commuter has its Benefits”
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/around-town/food-drink/Being-a-Frustrated-Bay-Bridge-Commuter-Comes-With-Benefits-67263677.html

San Francisco Chronicle, October 28, 2009 “Free Candy, No Costumes Required”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=50408

SF Examiner
FREE Fair Trade Chocolate this Thursday
http://www.examiner.com/x-12008-SF-Organic-Food-Examiner~y2009m10d27-FREE-Fair-Trade-Chocolate-this-Thursday

MissionMission, October 29, 2009
“Free Chocolate For Commuters”
http://missionmission.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/free-chocolate-for-commuters/

SF Weekly, Oct, 29, 2009
“Free Chocolate at a Handful of BART Stations Tonight”
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/10/free_chocolate_at_select_bart.php

10.29.2009

Divine Chocolate Giveaway Has Moved

*UPDATE*: CHANGE OF LOCATION
October is Fair Trade Month!
Fair Trade Certified Chocolate Giveaway TODAY


Media contact:
Katie Barrrow
TransFair USA
(510) 663-5260, ext. 388
kbarrow@transfairusa.org

UPDATE: Oct. 29, 2009 (2 p.m. P.S.T.)

The FREE, Fair Trade Certified Chocolate giveaway for BART commuters will still take place today, from 5-7 p.m., but at different locations.

Due to the unexpected Bay Area Bridge closure, more commuters than normal are depending on BART. TransFair USA, the Oakland-based nonprofit that helped to organize the giveaway, made the decision Wednesday afternoon to move the giveaways to four nearby locations so as not to interfere with the commuter traffic. The New Fair Trade Chocolate Giveaway Locations are:

Bittersweet Chocolate Café (near Rockridge Bart)
5427 College Ave
(Between Hudson St & Kales Ave)
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-7159
www.bittersweetcafe.com

Berkeley Bowl Main (near Ashby Bart)
2020 Oregon Street
Berkeley, CA 94703
(510) 843-6929
www.berkeleybowl.com

Rainbow Grocery (near 16th Street Bart)
1745 Folsom St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 863-0620
www.rainbow.coop

Fog City News/Union Square Area(Divine Street Team will be there manning the streets on the 400 Block near Union Square)
455 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.fogcitynews.com

Volunteers from the Berkeley Fair Trade Campaign, Oakland Fair Trade Campaign and Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition will treat evening commuters to Divine Chocolate in celebration of Fair Trade Month.

By making the switch to Fair Trade Certified chocolate this Halloween, such as Divine, farmers are paid a premium price for their products in exchange for following rigorous standards that guarantee worker rights, community empowerment and environmental sustainability. Farmers and employees also use these premiums to improve their communities by building schools, medical clinics or a water purification system.

About TransFair USA
TransFair USA is the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade Certified™ products in the United States. TransFair USA audits and certifies transactions between U.S. companies and their international suppliers to guarantee that the farmers and workers producing Fair Trade Certified goods were paid fair prices and wages. Visit www.FairTradeCertified.org.

To learn more about Fair Trade Month and view other event listings, please visit www.fairtrademonth.org.

10.20.2009

Divine Chocolate Giveaway


Share the Love with Divine Chocolate
Fair Trade Chocolate Giveaway


Thursday, October 29th
at Montgomery Street, 24th Street, Rockridge and Ashby Stations


Join the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition and Divine Chocolate in Sharing the Love with afternoon BART riders and spreading the word about Fair Trade Month and our new campaigns to declare both Oakland and Berkeley a Fair Trade Town.

Divine Chocolate, owned by cocoa farmers and made for chocolate lovers, hopes that you are having a fantastic Fair Trade Month and is reaching out to commuters in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley to say thank you to all their loyal customers.

Volunteers with the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition will be handing out free samples of Divine Chocolate from 4-8 pm at Montgomery St. Station and from 5-7 pm at 24th Street, Rockridge and Ashby Stations.

We will also be tabling to share the Divine Chocolate story with commuters and encourage riders to choose Fair Trade Certified chocolate when they shop this Halloween. Along with the chocolate from Divine, volunteers will hand out a list of stores where folks can find Divine Chocolate in time to hand out at the door this Halloween.

Divine Chocolate is co-owned by the 45,000 farmers of Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana. Learn more about how your purchase of Divine Chocolate is helping farmers improve their communities and keep their kids in school in this cute animated video.





Looking to make the switch to Fair Trade Chocolate this Halloween? Share the love with friends, family and neighbors by buying Divine Chocolate to hand out at the door.

You can order online here:


Divine Halloween Milk Balls


Click Here to Buy Online


Divine Dark Chocolate Minis


Click Here to Buy Online


You can also find Divine Chocolate in these Bay Area Locations:



Montgomery Street Station

Fog City News – 0.3 Miles
455 Market Street Suite 125
(Between Front St & Fremont St)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 543-7400
www.fogcitynews.com

Bristol Farms – 0.4 Miles
Westfield Shopping Center
865 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 979-0106
www.bristolfarms.com

24th Street Station

26th & Guerrero Market – 0.3 Miles
1400 Guerrero Street
(Between 26th St & Cesar Chavez St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 282-6274
www.26thandguerreromarket.com

DeLano's IGA – 0.2 Miles
1245 S Van Ness Avenue
(Between 23rd St & 24th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 282-0514
www.delanomarkets.com

Rainbow Grocery – 0.6 Miles
1745 Folsom St
(Between 14th St & Erie St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 863-0621
www.rainbow.coop

Bi-Rite Market – 0.5 Miles
3639 18th St
(Between Guerrero St & Oakwood St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 241-9760
www.biritemarket.com

Ashby Street Station

Berkeley Bowl Main
2020 Oregon Street
Berkeley, CA 94703
(510) 843-6929


Whole Foods Market
3000 Telegraph Ave
(Between Dowling Pl & Webster St)
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 649-1333
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Rockridge Station

Bittersweet Chocolate Café
5427 College Ave
(Between Hudson St & Kales Ave)
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-7159
www.bittersweetcafe.com

Other locations around the Bay Area:

Bayside Market
120 Brannan St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 227-0151

Berkeley Bowl West
920 Heinz Ave
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 898-9555
www.berkeleybowl.com

Bittersweet Café
2123 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-8715
www.bittersweetcafe.com

Global Exchange
2840 College Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 548-0370
www.globalexchange.org

Golden Natural Foods
130 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 864-2107

Rincon Market
98 Howard St
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 512-8066
www.rinconmarket.com

Whole Foods Market - Potrero Hill
450 Rhode Island St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415)-552-1155
www.wholefoodsmarket.com

Whole Foods Market - SoMa
399 4th St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 618-0066
www.wholefoodsmarket.com



Do you have two hours to dress up in your favorite Halloween costume and hand out chocolate with us? We will need at least 5 volunteers per station to make this event a success and we can't do it without your help. For more information, or to volunteer, please contact Jamie Guzzi, 510-663-5260, x. 309 or email jguzzi@transfairusa.org.

10.19.2009

Fair Trade Halloween Meeting



Dear Friends,

Join the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition as we plan our big Fair Trade Chocolate giveaway with Divine Chocolate, coming next Thursday, October 29th to a BART station near you.

Volunteers will be partnering with Divine Chocolate to hand out 2000 Divine Milk Chocolate Halloween foil wrapped chocolate balls, 400 Divine Chocolate Dark Mini Bars and 900 Divine Milk Chocolate Crunchy bars to afternoon BART riders at 24th St., Rockridge and Asbhy stations.

The event is part of Divine's national Share the Love campaign in celebration of Fair Trade Month. Come find out how you can get involved and help Share the Love with family, friends and neighbors this Halloween.

Host: Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition
Type: Meetings - Club/Group Meeting
Network: Global
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: Global Exchange, 2017 Mission St. Suite 200

Please RSVP:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=162092967702

For more information or to volunteer please contact Jamie Guzzi, jguzzi@transfairusa.org, 510-663-5260 x. 309.

10.15.2009

Fair Trade Month Events


Click here to view entire set

The Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition has been busy with a number of local events in Oakland and Berkeley and more to come later this month in San Francisco. To kick it all off we hosted a Fair Trade Month "Kick-Off" party on Tuesday, September 29th at the Fox Den in downtown Oakland.

The event was the official launch for both the Fair Trade Oakland campaign and the national Fair Trade Month campaign and Fair Trade supporters, activists and staff from local Fair Trade businesses and nonprofits came by to share a drink, participate in our raffle and learn more about the campaigns. We also had a photo booth where you could have your picture taken as the famous Fair Trade Certified "bucket boy" himself!


Click here to view the entire set

On Tuesday, October 6th we had a flurry of events to celebrate Fair Trade Month and Fairhills Fair Trade Wines from Argentina, Chile and South Africa. In mid afternoon we started with a wonderful speaking engagement with MBA students and the NET impact group at the HAAS School of Business at UC Berkeley. The event feautered a panel discussion including TransFair USA CFO, Joan Catherine Braun; Fair Trade Towns USA coordinator, Billy Linstead Goldsmith; and Founder of Origin Wines and exporter of Fair Trade Certified Fairhills Wine, Bernard Fontannaz.

Joan presented a wonderfully eloquent speech on the mission of TrasFair USA and Fair Trade Certified as a successful model for sustainable trade. Billy presented on the history of the national Fair Trade Towns movement and the growing movement for a Fair Trade Oakland and Berkeley. Bernard spoke on the impact of Fair Trade Certified wines for wine producers in Argentina, Chile and South Africa and gave some moving insight into how Fair Trade is truly changing lives.

Later that afternoon, Prestige Wines, hosted a wine tasting and tabling with Bernard at the Whole Foods Market in Potrero Hill and celebrated the launch of their new Fair Trade Certified Bus Stop wines. The event was a smashing success with over 35 bottles sold even in the slow, mid-afternoon 2 hour time slot. The premium generated from the sale of every bottle of Fairhills Bus Stop wine goes to fund school buses for the children of vineyard workers.


Click here to view entire set

We ended the day with a delightful wine and chocolate tasting and fundraiser at the Bay Area HUB in Berkeley. Alter Eco sampled their chocolates and Prestige Wines sampled their Fairhills wines available at Whole Foods Market and Cost Plus World Market. TransFair USA's Development Director, Lynn Lohr presented a heartwarming speech about TransFair USA and Wes Selke of Good Capital spoke of his companies investment in Fair Trade products. Bernard Fontannaz finished the night with a wonderful presentation about Fairhills Fair Trade Certified wines and Matthieu Senard of Alter Eco asked some interesting questions that got him talking about the history of Apartheid in South Africa and how Fair Trade offers a way forward. He also presented a video of the Fairhills Vineyards where we got to see first hand how the vineyard works and hear the hopes and dreams of its workers for a new future with Fair Trade.

Our BAFTC Fair Trade Month activities continued last night with a Fair Trade movie screening at the Numi Tea Garden in Oakland. Cosponsored by Numi Tea and Alter Eco, the event featured a film screening and discussion of two Fair Trade films "All in This Tea" and "The Price of Sugar" and guests were treated to an assortment of Fair Trade and locally produced food and drink.

The event featured a panel discussion with Ahmed Rahim, CEO of Numi Organic Tea; Edouard Rollet, COO of Alter Eco Products; Cate Baril, Director of Grocery and Ingredients at TransFair USA and Maria Lafleur, a former Peace Corps volunteer from the Dominican Republic. Attendees also enjoyed a showcase of Fair Trade Certified products, including tea, olive oil, chocolate, honey and sugar, as well as a sampling of Fair Trade Ceritied wine and local pizza from Arizmendi. Many Thanks to our product donors, Numi Organic Tea, Alter Eco Products, Stellar Organic Winery and Wholesome Sweeteners.

And there's still one more event to come! Stay tuned for details about our upcoming Fair Trade Chocolate giveaway with Divine Chocolate at the 24th St., Rockridge and Ashby BART stations on October 29th!

10.02.2009

Fair Trade Movie Night



Numi Organic Tea and Alter Eco Products Present

Fair Trade Movie Night

An evening of film, dialogue and refreshments in honor of Fair Trade Month


Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Location: Numi Tea Garden, 2230 Livingston Street, Oakland CA

Time: 5:30-8:00 pm

Ticket price: Requested (not mandatory) donation of $5 to TransFair USA. A more generous donation is greatly appreciated; no one will be turned away!

Join local purveyors of Fair Trade Certified products for an evening of film, refreshments and dialogue. Participants will watch segments of critically acclaimed documentaries, “All in This Tea” and “The Price of Sugar,” and enjoy an assortment of Fair Trade and locally produced food and drink. Company experts will give a panel discussion and Q&A session around the importance that Fair Trade certification has for their companies and farming partners.

RSVP by Friday, October 9 to Brittney Riggsbee at Brittney@numitea.com

Speakers:

Ahmed Rahim, CEO, Numi Organic Tea
Edouard Rollet, COO, Alter-Eco Products
Cate Baril, Director of Grocery & Ingredients, TransFair USA
Maria Lafleur, former Peace Corps volunteer, Dominican Republic

A showcase of Fair Trade Certified products, including tea, olive oil, chocolate, honey, sugar and wine will be served, as well as a sampling of local pizza from Arizmendi.

Many Thanks to our product donors: Stellar Organic Winery, Wholesome Sweeteners