Local Fair Trade Sessions for Co-ops

Co-op managers and employees are invited to two information and feedback sessions by the Local Fair Trade Network (LFTN). The session for managers will be at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, November 27 at the Seward Co-op satellite office. The session for employees will be at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, November 28 at the Bedlam Theater.

LFTN works to apply the Fair Trade model to local food in order to create a better life for everyone involved in our local food system. During the 2007 local growing season LFTN has been working with Seward Co-op, Bluff Country Co-op and four local farmers on a pilot project for a Local Fair Trade food label. We have also begun discussions with local farmers about creating a cooperatively-owned transportation system in order to get their produce to the Twin Cities market more efficiently.

At these sessions, we will review the lessons learned from Local Fair Trade pilot and get feedback from co-op managers on how to proceed with the next phase of the project. Our goal is to help farmers and co-ops boost the sales of local produce by highlighting and strengthening the ethical practices that the co-op and sustainable ag movements have pioneered.

We especially encourage general managers, marketing managers and produce managers to attend the session for managers. Also in attendance will be local farmers and representatives of Equal Exchange and Centro Campesino.

The Seward Co-op satellite office is located at 2225 East Franklin in Minneapolis. The door is on the east side of the building that contains the Second Moon Coffee House. The manager session will feature coffee and Domestic Fair Trade snacks from Equal Exchange.

The Bedlam Theater is located at 1501 South Sixth Street in Minneapolis, next to the Cedar-Riverside LRT station. All attendees will receive a free drink from the Bedlam bar on LFTN.