Raise your coffee cup to a Fair Trade Campus
University of Alberta named Canada’s 30th Fair Trade Campus, a designation from Fairtrade Canada that recognizes colleges and universities committed to fair trade.
A team of university employees started working toward the Fair Trade Campus designation in September, and their efforts have come to fruition. On January 12, 2018, Fairtrade Canada named the University of Alberta its 30th Fair Trade Campus.
Representatives from the university, the Students’ Union and Aramark worked together and consulted with student groups and other stakeholders in order to earn this designation.
“I’m really excited, having been a part of Engineers without Borders for four years now. One of our big goals is to create sustainable and inclusive economies around the world. And really fair trade is a great way to try and accomplish this, especially with looking at the huge system of where our food comes from,” says UAlberta student Sara Kardash. “I’m really excited to know that the campus has taken such a strong footing and initiative into fair trade.”
Fair trade creates sustainable and inclusive economies because producers get fair prices for goods and trading practices are not exploitative.
If you love coffee, tea and chocolate, now’s the time to rejoice, because Fairtrade-certified options are now available at all student union and university-owned vendors on North Campus, South Campus and Campus Saint-Jean. This is one of the key requirements for getting Fair Trade Campus designation.
“We’ve been serving Fairtrade coffee for a number of years at the Student’s Union. We’ve just made sure that recently when we applied for the Fair Trade Campus certification that all of our coffees and at least half of our teas are Fairtrade,” says Jerry Daley, the food and beverage manager for the Students’ Union.
The Fairtrade-certified coffee in Lister Hall is supplied by Doi Chaang. Dolores March, director of hospitality services, gives rave reviews of this “beyond fair trade” coffee.
Lorraine Huntley, who works with March, says that the team will be striving to expand the fair trade food options in Lister, with the help of Shilpi Gupta, director of operations for Aramark food services.
“Now as we’re bringing new products, it’s always in the back of our mind: Can we get this fair trade, sustainable, local?” says Huntley.
To celebrate the designation, the university and the SU sold cups of Fairtrade-certified coffee for just $0.50 on January 12. Some celebrated with a few more cups than others.
“I drink quite a bit of coffee, probably more than I should,” Daley says with a smile.
“I was not a coffee drinker,” says Gupta. “Since last year, getting Fairtrade, I started drinking more coffee.”
To learn more about fair trade terminologies and practices, plus the certified products on campus, check out our other article: Buying fair trade on campus.
To learn more about the university’s Fair Trade Campus status, please visit uab.ca/fairtrade
Written by Angela Johnston for the University of Alberta’s Office of Sustainability.
