Kim Browning dreaded the sight of the monotonous multi-paged glossies her two elementary school sons toted home every year-filled with chocolates, wrapping paper, candles, trinkets, and random others. It wasn't that she didn't want to help raise funds for Jonathan and Christopher's school; no, she'd always send in a check along with a handwritten letter explaining why she didn't want to sell or buy the mass-produced products.
"I'm someone who doesn't try to overconsume," said Kim Browning. "When my oldest son, who's now in fifth grade, started second grade, I took more notice of the fundraising magazines and I remember the catalog came home and I thought, 'ugh.' They seemed so unnecessary, filled with things we didn't need."
It was her most recent letter, written last year to the Stonewall Elementary PTA, and her subsequent role as fundraising chair in 2006, that led Browning to discover Equal Exchange fundraising. Browning took her new role very seriously, studying various fundraising programs via the Internet. As she learned more about Equal Exchange's program and the various fair trade products offered, she became a passionate advocate for the farming families struggling to make a living in various countries around the world.
Equal Exchange was started in 1986 by three New England co-op managers who were dedicated to bridging the gap between consumers and farmers, both locally and globally. The company has since grown into a thriving worker-owned cooperative, offering coffee, tea, and chocolate products from over 30 farmer cooperatives in 18 countries. These products are offered in more than 300 food cooperatives and are consumed by more than 300 million across the world. Browning first became familiar with fair trade items when Good Foods Market & CafÈ, of which she is an owner (meaning she purchased a share in the company), started selling Equal Exchange coffees in 2003.
"Equal Exchange started to look at how coffee was being traded on the conventional market," explained Browning. "The founders went to different countries and saw that it wasn't a fair and equitable system. The coffee market can be quite volatile and, at times, the farmers aren't paid enough to cover the cost to grow the product in the first place. The company grew over the years to include chocolate, cocoa, and tea, and has recently looked at America's fair trade situation, adding dried cranberries, pecans, and almonds, grown here domestically. It's the same commitmentÖwe can't grow the coffee, tea, and chocolate, it comes from somewhere else."
By selling fair trade items like coffee and chocolate, Browning not only helped raise $12,200 for the school, while helping to sustain a way of life for thousands of co-op farmers, but she sparked a deep awareness in the hearts and minds of hundreds of kids, teachers, and families.
"I found that the people who didn't support fair trade, didn't know what it was," said Browning. As she learned more about Equal Exchange and fair trade, she was appalled by what she found.
"I became more concerned that we were asking our kids to sell products other kids were suffering to make. It's well known that in the chocolate industry, forced child labor and slavery are pretty common practice. The major chocolate companies were asked to adhere to standards to abolish this, but they haven't yet. Could we guarantee the chocolate we were selling in these catalogs weren't made using child labor? Could we trace it back? No, we couldn't. It became more than 'can we do something different,' it became 'we must do something different.'"
Browning's next step led her to Kelsie Evans, fundraising program coordinator for Equal Exchange. "I filled out the online form and that afternoon Kelsie called me, asking what they could do to help-and that pretty much started it," said Browning. She set up a meeting with the Stonewall PTA last summer and supplied free samples of tea, cocoa, and chocolate. Evans had also sent a short video of Dominican Republic coffee farmers. "I emphasized what my concern was, to save the children, and they understood that and said 'let's do it.'"
Eight hundred brand new fundraising brochures were sent home, only this time, condensed into a simple four-page brochure, two adorable Nicaraguan boys smiling up from the cover. Inside were all the fair trade products: coffee, tea, chocolate, hot cocoa, baking cocoa, and travel mugs.
"I knew not everyone was going to choose to participate," said Browning. "But I thought the people who won't, at least, won't waste these 32-page catalogs. Recycling is another interest of mine and I was looking for something a little less harmful to the earth. And by selling these products we are helping to ensure a decent life for people who are very far away yet touch our lives everyday."
The mother of three sons (Jeremy, 4, who attends Creative Montessori, Jonathan, 8, and Christopher, 11), and an 11-year stay-at-home mom, Browning felt it was essential she teach her kids more about the world around them. To help inform them, as well as the kids at school, she used one of the school's entryway display cases to post pictures taken from a friend's recent trip to Mexico.
"Last April, Anne Hopkins, manager of Good Foods, went on a sponsor trip to Chiapas, Mexico, to visit a coffee co-op," explained Browning, who is planning an Equal Exchange trip in April to the Dominican Republic. "I ended up using her pictures and it just brought it all to life. When you looked into the faces of the people in the pictures, I couldn't imagine not supporting. Because of this type of participation, these communities are able to build and sustain schools and standards of living."
Browning also gave a presentation to Christopher's fifth grade class, and afterwards, one of his friends came up and thanked her. "He really understood. These are the kids who will go on to share it with others; it's how the message really gets out."
"I've cut out most non fair trade chocolate and my kids really haven't complained," she said. "It's surprising, yet not. They seem to understand. When I was first invited on this Equal Exchange trip to the Dominican Republic, I wasn't sure I could raise the $1,200, so my two oldest sons gave me their combined savings of $300." Another heartwarming gesture occurred last Halloween when Jonathan refused to eat the non fair trade chocolate from his trick-or-treat bag!
Browning said she got a lot of positive feedback from parents as well. In numerous e-mails, parents expressed similar dislike for the stale fundraisers of years past. They said that this year, they really felt good about the products they were buying and selling. "Another great thing is that these are products that aren't just going to sit on the shelf-use and enjoy," said Browning. "It was attractive to me to be able to sell something consumable, and not another specialty product."
Her hard work and commitment ignited a sense of purpose and a conviction for doing what is fair and right in so many and has become an inspiration to those who have met her along the way. "She is just incredible," said Anne Hopkins. "She first contacted me back when she was learning of fair trade, then she came back to me with this wonderful idea. Her dedication and motivation have made the first-ever Kentucky fair trade fundraiser one of the biggest Equal Exchange fundraisers ever."
In 2007, the first year Equal Exchange offered a fair trade fundraiser, 200 schools participated, said Equal Exchange's Kelsie Evans. "Fundraising is absolutely hard work for the school and it's unfortunate they have to put in so much effort, but it makes money for really important school activities," said Evans. "We appreciate the dedicated parents who put in the time and effort. Kim has had such an impact on her community and it was a joy to work with her. We couldn't do it without people like her."
Browning said that throughout the year, in times of strength and times of doubt, she'd turn to two reminders posted on her fridge. Two quotes: Gandhi's 'Be the change you want to see in the world' and Emerson's 'Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' She said it was never a question of whether she could do it, but how.
"Will I do it next year?" reflected Browning. "I'm not sure. I'm looking to go back to work but we'll see how it fits. I would love to say that Stonewall is doing this again next year, and I'd love to see other schools try it. I would be more than happy to talk to people, to act as a resource.
"The Equal Exchange people were so amazing to work with. Kelsie was completely responsive when I had questions; how nice it was to have someone so willing to help and who didn't put me off. The whole organization was so niceÖI'm sure it attracts a certain type of person and I found them to be extremely helpful and committed to fair trade and spreading that message throughout the world."
fair trade local vendors
Good Foods Market & CafÈ (859) 278-1813
Wild Oats (859) 971-8600
Common Grounds (859) 233-9761
Starbucks (find the closest to you at www.starbucks.com)
Lucia's World Friendly Boutique (859) 389-9337
Coffea Island (859) 253-6779
Unitarian Universalist Church (859) 223-1448
PeaceCraft (Berea) (859) 986-7441
Contacts
Kim Browning, e-mail ksbrowning@windstream.net.
Equal Exchange's Kelsie Evans, call (774) 776-7371.
Good Food's Anne Hopkins, call (859) 278-1813, ext. 248.
Ian McMillan, a sales representative for Equal Exchange, will be in the Lexington area in February, to reach him, e-mail IMcMillan@EqualExchange.coop.