Café Campesino held its first "official" World Fair Trade Day Celebration here in Americus on May 13th and, from start to finish, it was a most excellent experience... thanks to the support of our community and the hard work of the Café Campesino team. We are particularly grateful to our friend and Mayor, Barry Blount, who joined us at Rylander Park on Saturday morning to proclaim "May 13, 2006, World Fair Trade Day in the City of Americus, a day of support for a global economic system which is based in Fair Trade and socially responsible investment." Read the actual proclamation here.

After Mayor Blount's proclamation, conversation, music and samples of Café Campesino coffee and Geoffrey's famous BRAG iced mochas ruled the day. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, a steady stream of supporters and the curious stopped by the Café Campesino and Three Frontiers Trading tents to learn more about what this Fair Trade thing is all about... and everyone was diggin it!

But wait a minutes folks, that's not all! There's more! Our World Fair Trade Day 2006 celebration didn't wrap up until the wee hours of the following morning, after a community pot-luck supper and showing of the film "The Gods Must Be Crazy" at the Café Campesino roastery. In all, more than 60 folks from our community joined us for the evening's events and apart from a little one getting trapped in the restroom, this year's celebration went off without a hitch.

Next year, we plan on building on this overwhelmingly positive experience…same bat channel, same bat time…and, as was the case this year, all are invited! In the meantime, we aim to keep the momentum going with a particular focus on the cultivation of community, an often overlooked but central component of the Fair Trade movement.

And where's the best place to start working on community? Right here at home! Check out the article in this issue by our friend Bren Dubay, the director of Koinonia Farm, a Christian community located just outside of Americus. We consider Koinonia to be a staunch ally in our quest for a more just and peaceful world. As you will read in Bren's article, Koinonia's founder Clarence Jordan and the racially diverse Koinonia community weathered extremely bitter, violent times in the 50s and 60s when racism challenged the community's right to exist. Thanks to Clarence Jordan's and the Koinonia community's strong faith and perseverance, peace, justice and tolerance ultimately won out.

Today, Koinonia continues to build on the work of Clarence Jordan and in many ways is what we consider to be an oasis of peace amidst a most unsettled world. Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia community offer an example of living that many of us likely feel has been left behind in a world of consumed by materialism, divisiveness and violence. Koinonia's paradigm and the results it produces are extraordinary and we hope that readers of this month's Fair Grounds will take the time to learn more about everything that Koinonia has to offer.

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