ONE WORLD COFFEE AND TRADE QUICK OVERVIEW

• One World Coffee and Trade program exists to give youth hands on experience to create, manage, and operate a business that is socially, economically and ecologically responsible. All the profits from the fair trade store go towards supporting Peace Jam.

• The store will be open in the Santa Fe Market from March 13 - 28th. We are currently searching for a permanent location.

• Over 25 students from 5 high schools are actively participating in this program. 

HISTORY OF ONE WORLD COFFEE AND TRADE

In the spring of 2003, Students of the Santa Fe Student Coalition, a group of students from various Santa Fe high schools who engage in service learning projects together, began the process of creating a fair trade store and coffee shop. One World Coffee and Trade and the Santa Fe Student Coalition are operating under the fiscal umbrella of the Center for Service Learning Opportunities in Education and are in collaboration with Earth Care.
 

VISION OF ONE WORLD COFFEE AND TRADE

One World Coffee and Trade will serve as a lasting local teen service learning project through which high school students will learn about business, the local and global economy, and how they can address social problems, in addition to all skills associated with founding a non-profit store.

Our primary goal overall is to plug students into our community by giving them an opportunity to learn about local and global issues and engage in positive social change. Beyond the learning we are undergoing by creating the shop and studying the economy, we will create in the store a social/political venue that will fuel further learning, activism, and community participation. The store will be a place for consumers and activists of all ages where teens will feel ownership and integral involvement in a social good. After the store is up and running, students will have the opportunity to create spin-off projects associated with the store. Opportunities might include fundraising for trips to see the fair trade cooperatives in other countries, beginning to evaluate local artisans for fair trade status, planning social and political speaker events, and more.

In future years, our goals include becoming financially viable and being able to donate money to support youth projects or local non profits. Eventually, in order to increase the level of student learning, we would like to start classes at each school affiliated with the store that will focus on social activism and the global economy.
 

STORE DESCRIPTION

One World will sell fair trade goods from around the world wholesaled from PeaceCraft in Albuquerque, goods from various Native American tribes through Santa Fe Indian School student participants, and fair trade coffee wholesaled from Coffee Kids and other local retailers.

In summary, the store will have multiple purposes:
 

• Teen learning and volunteer opportunity: The store is being founded by a small group of students from all area high schools and will be staffed by teen volunteers. This will be a great way for teenagers to exercise their political and social power, participate in their local and global community, and fulfill their service hours while learning about fair trade, economics, business, and commerce.

• Social/political venue: Created and run by politically and socially active teens, the store will be a great place to meet, hang out, and discuss local issues. Eventually the store will invite local speakers and political activists of various perspectives to meet with teens and other interested community members.

• Coffee shop: Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world and is included in the diets of many Santa Fe residents. More and more members of our community are aware of the harsh conditions often afforded coffee growers in the traditional free trade system. One World will give them the option of purchasing fair trade beans and coffee drinks every time they come in the store.

• Store: Many members of Santa Fe would like to buy fair trade merchandise. An entire store devoted to this type of product will fill a community demand and make it easier for people to buy consciously.

THE COMMUNITY

The members of the Santa Fe community with whom we work include, primarily, teens from every area high school. Secondarily, we also work with members of local Native American tribes, Santa Fe residents, and those affected by the local and global economies.

Teens: Multiple studies, including a March, 2003 Carnegie Corporation report, document the political and social apathy teens feel in our country today. One World would address this apathy by creating a structure through which students learn about the local and global economies and act on social problems associated with these economies. Many local high schools have a service requirement for which students often struggle to fulfill hours, often failing to engage in useful activity (in the qualitative assessments of One World student participants). One World would give them a project in which they could participate fully. In the most recent “Kids Count” statistics, New Mexico was rated 45th state in the nation in the percent of teens not in school or working. The store will target as volunteers, in part, low-income and low-achieving students, thereby filling a need for job and business skills training.

Members of the local economy: The store will support local economies in three ways: First, we will buy coffee only from local distributors, like Coffee Kids. Second, we will support New Mexico non-profit organization PeaceCraft, further expanding their business. Third, through the Santa Fe Indian School student participants and 3rd party organizations like the Navajo Co-op, we will support Native American economies by selling authentic Native American arts and jewelry from New Mexico. Indeed, local residents who want to buy fair trade coffee and goods will also benefit in a sense from having an easy, local way to do so.

Members of the global economy: Of course, we will also contribute to the growth of the Fair Trade movement, bringing Fair Trade goods into a relatively young market—and one ripe for it. The artisans who make the goods One World Coffee and Trade will sell receive a decent wage and work in decent conditions. As the Fair Trade Federation states, we will thereby potentially contribute to a movement that raises the living conditions of 10% of the world’s poorest population.

 

WHO WE ARE

Our store

We are in front of the Second Street brewery right next to the tracks on Second Street.

A closer view

Santa Fe High students, grade 10, paint the ceiling.

Forty (and growing) students of the Santa Fe Student Coalition, are a diverse group of students in grades 9-12 from various Santa Fe public and private high schools. Many of us have backgrounds in social activism and economics and local connections of various kinds, including family members in four New Mexico pueblos from which we plan to obtain authentic Native American crafts to sell. We are working under the guidance of many qualified adults:
 

INITIAL PLANNING OLD PHOTOS

The community gets involved, Joe Wesselkamper retired Chief Financial Officer

We always meet in a circle

Anna Beers

Bryn McMahon

Dermot Monks

Houston Johansen

James Longmire

Jessie Starz
 

Kaya Harvey

Rachel Ellis

Amy Vanderlaan

Sam

Shennez

Frank

Ronnie

Jesse Morris

Sofia Onstad

NOT PICTURED

Patrick Ward

Dylan Smith

Adam Witmer

Alex McDonough

Ian

ADULTS

Rachel Balkcom has been a teacher at Santa Fe Prep for five years and has taught English, Philosophy, Social Activism, and Economics. She ran the school's national award-winning service learning program for three years.

Karey Thorne is the Education Director for PeaceJam New Mexico. PeaceJam is an international education program built around leading Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills, and wisdom they embody. Karey brought PeaceJam to New Mexico and works as a teacher at Santa Fe High. She has over 20 years of experience in teaching and youth counseling.

Taylor Selby is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Earth Care International. Earth Care International educates youth to understand the greater global connections between human and natural systems. Taylor has completed numerous community projects with teens and opened and ran his own coffee shop earlier in his life.
 

Christina Selby is the Co-Founder and Program Director of Earth Care International. She spent two years in the Peace Corps working in economic development with small coffee farmers in Panama and has completed numerous community projects with teens.
 

Bill Fishbein is the Founder and Executive Director of Coffee Kids, an international organization that works with local non-governmental community organizations in Latin America to create education, health-care, training, and microenterprise programs for coffee farmers and their families. Bill has also been in the coffee business for over 20 years. He opened a thriving fair trade coffee shop and imports and roasts coffee.
 

Beth Cammarata is a teacher and Key Club Director at the Santa Fe Indian School. Under her direction, the Key Club has won numerous regional and national awards. She has completed numerous community projects with teens.
 

Maria Sheldon is a Spanish teacher at Santa Fe Prep and a native of Puebla, Mexico. She has two years' experience certifying and importing Fair Trade goods from Mexico.