Fair Grounds Newsletter from Cafe Campesino

888.532.4728 (tel)
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Summertime...and the Fair Trading is Hot
A Couple of Announcements
Sumatra Update: June 2005 provided by Thomas Fricke, ForesTrade
Café Campesino Community Caravan
National Fair Trade Conference
Fair Trade Partner: Three Frontiers Trading Co.
Test Your Coffee Knowledge
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

The start of summer gives the Café Campesino staff more chances to be out and about promoting Fair Trade. We just finished up a very successful BRAG event, and will wind up the month at our newest venture with Paddle Georgia. You'll find more about our activities in Community Caravan. Also in this month's Fair Grounds, we provide an update about the progress our friends at PPKGO in Sumatra are making in rebuilding their communities after last year’s tsunami disaster. Despite the many challenges they have faced and continue to face, our producer partners there have managed to keep up with the production and export of their fine coffee. (This month's special is our delicious Sumatra coffee…order this Full City Roast this month and receive 10% off of the regular listed price. Please use promotion code sum605 when prompted at check out.) We round out the issue with a couple announcements, a Fair Trade partner piece, a new trivia question and a yummy iced mocha recipe. Make yourself a cool tall one, settle back and read on...

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July 4th:
In observance of Independence Day Café Campesino will be closed Monday, July 4th and Tuesday, July 5th.

New On-Line Account Management Feature:
Café Campesino is pleased to announce our new customer account management interface on www.cafecampesino.com! Now, existing retail (including coffee club members) and wholesale customers can log-in and manage their billing and shipping addresses, payment method information, email address and password as well as one-time and recurring (scheduled/club) orders…in one place. Existing customers can also view their order history and print copies of receipts for their orders.

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provided by Thomas Fricke, ForesTrade

The following is an update of relief efforts underwritten by the Aceh Tsunami Relief Fund, to which Café Campesino and many of our customers contributed earlier this year. We want thank everyone who pitched in to support the Sumatra relief program and especially our friends at ForesTrade, PPKGO and CV Trimaju for their hard work and dedication to rebuilding the many communities in Sumatra who were affected by the tsunami last December.

The Aceh Tsunami Relief Fund has made a complete shift to supporting the reconstruction of local community infrastructure in the coffee-growing Gayo Highland region. In late April, the local implementing organizations PPKGO and CV Trimaju created a summary plan for priority rebuilding projects in 20 villages that suffered physical losses during the devastating earthquake of December 2004 and subsequent aftershocks. An itemized budget was prepared containing specific locations, projects undertaken, and estimated costs per item.

more...

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The Café Campesino crew for this year’s Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG)—veterans Geoffrey Hennies and Alan Cook and newcomers Ann Karp and Joy Young—did a stellar job serving Café Campesino coffee, iced mochas and snacks to this year’s BRAGers. Kudos to Ann and Joy for jumping right in to keep the coffee flowing and the bikers happy! The following is a brief vignette by Ann that we believe captures the BRAG experience beautifully.

“Café Campesino’s coffee service at the summer 2005 Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) was an energizing success! Our little rental truck chugged along from Columbus to Jekyll Island following nearly 2,000 cyclists, and our crew—Geoffrey, Alan, Ann & Joy—served up about 110 pounds (around 3,000 cups!) of java. The favorite drink for groggy pre-ride cyclists was our special “BRAG Brew,” a blend of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Sumatra coffees, preferably served far before sunrise. And in the hot, muggy afternoons, we served nearly 1,000 iced mochas to grateful cyclists pulling in at the end of their rides. (See sidebar for our iced mocha recipe.) All the while we enjoyed enlightening the thirsty cyclists about Fair Trade coffee and the impact their daily cup can have. We look forward to doing it again next year!”

June 24-July 1: Paddle Georgia – We hope that BRAG crew member Geoffrey rests up quickly now that BRAG 2005 is over because starting on Friday June 24th, he’ll be at it again, serving Café Campesino coffee, iced mochas and snacks to paddlers in the first annual Paddle Georgia. Paddling enthusiasts from all over will come together for the first annual Paddle Georgia, a week-long, 110-mile canoe/kayak adventure on the Chattahoochee River from Buford Dam to Franklin. Daily paddle trips will average 15 miles and participants will be camping nightly, enjoying meals, games, entertainment, educational programs and, of course, Café Campesino Fair Trade coffee. Café Campesino is thrilled to be part of Paddle Georgia 2005, which will raise funds for the Georgia River Network and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.

To learn more about Paddle Georgia, visit:http://www.garivers.org/paddlegeorgia/pghome.html.

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Thousands of people like you believe in Fair Trade as a model of economic and environmental justice. Many of us will be gathering in Chicago from September 30 to October 2, 2005, to strengthen Fair Trade mission-driven organizations and attract customers and activists to the movement. Over the course of a weekend, Fair Trade organizations, consumers, activists and businesses will:

* Build energy and excitement about Fair Trade among those committed to its principles.
* Bring the principles and practices of Fair Trade businesses, programs and products to national attention.
* Develop relationships and deepen the understanding among committed Fair Trade leaders.
* Reach out to new consumers and constituents, activists, grassroots organizations and allies.
* Create education and action tools for new and committed Fair Traders to become a definable movement beyond the conference.

If you are interested in joining us, please visit http://www.fairtradefederation.org/2005ftconference/ where you can learn more about the conference and register to attend. Thanks for your interest!

The National Fair Trade Conference is being led by sponsorship of: A Greater Gift/SERRV, Catholic Relief Services, Cooperative Coffees, Equal Exchange, Lutheran World Relief, Oxfam America and Ten Thousand Villages.

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Several months ago, we introduced you to Three Frontiers Trading Company, a new venture that emerged out of a unique friendship between Café Campesino owners Lee Harris, Bill Harris, Tripp Pomeroy and Tripp's wife, Marysol, a native of Paraguay, and their shared commitment to Fair Trade.

Three Frontiers’ mission is twofold: 1) to expand the reach of Fair Trade in the United States and 2) to establish new Fair Trade relationships with producers who have yet to join the world market on equal terms. Three Frontiers is currently working on its first objective, offering truly beautiful, quality handrafted works by fair trade producer partners throughout the developing world, including: home decorations, childrens toys and games, instruments, apparel, pottery and more—all of which are available for purchase at www.threefrontiers.com.

The second objective, to establish new Fair Trade relationships with marginalized producers, is directly connected to the inspiration for the name Three Frontiers—a region known as Las Tres Fronteras, which is a “no-man’s land” that lies where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brasil intersect. There, every day, men, women and children toil to scrape out a living hauling and trading whatever products they can get their hands on, engulfed in the fumes from excessive traffic and inevitably generating less than a subsistence income. It is Three Frontiers’ intention to establish new Fair Trade relationships with artisan producers in the Tres Fronteras region. We'll keep you posted as the work progresses.

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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!

Laura Blaivis is the winner of last month's Coffee Knowledge question. She knew that the first commercial espresso machine was manufactured in Italy in 1905. This year marks it's hundredth anniversary! Congratulations, Laura!

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“Duct tape is like The Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.”

— Carl Zwanzig

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Fair Grounds is produced by:

Café Campesino
725 Spring Street
Americus, GA 31709

Contact Information:

Orders and General Information
Phone - 888.532.4728, 229.924.2468
Fax - 229.924.6250
http://www.cafecampesino.com
www.cafecampesino.com/store/index.php
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Lee Harris
Tripp Pomeroy
Bill Harris
Kayci LeRoy

Fair Grounds is designed and delivered by:

Starstruck Design
335 West Gill Road
Gill, MA 01354

Contact Information:
Don Kruger
Lynn Nichols
Phone - 413.863.7752
Fax - 413.863.7752
http://www.starstruckdesign.com

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