Fair Trade Resources

These resources introduce the Fair Trade concept and the Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Program. They help you introduce Fair Trade to others in your community. Each document title links to the resource — it's that easy!

Fair Trade Definition: What is Fair Trade, anyway? This one-page flyer identifies the principles of Fair Trade that CRS embraces, and explains briefly how the CRS Fair Trade program works to build an economy for everyone. It is an easy-to-reproduce flyer for special events and educational opportunities.
Fair Trade Program Brochure — "Trading on our values": This is a one-page (front-and-back) flyer that briefly introduces the Fair trade concept and all four CRS Fair Trade programs. A great take-away for large events in your community.
Fair Trade Program Flyer: This is a one-page (front-and-back) flyer that briefly introduces the Fair trade concept and all four CRS Fair Trade programs. A great take-away for large events in your community.
Fair Trade Futures Action Guide: The Fair Trade Futures Action Guide is a comprehensive resource featuring profiles of innovative Fair Trade practices and projects from across the United States. This fantastic resource is the official action guide of the Fair Trade Futures Conference, a national Fair Trade event that was co-sponsored by CRS.
Fair Trade and Catholic Social Teaching
: This document explores seven core principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and explains how Fair Trade creates opportunities for us to honor them through the choices we make every day as consumers.
The Essentials: All you need to know about the CRS Fair Trade Program on one 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper — a perfect bulletin insert. "The Essentials" describes the Fair Trade Program and provides information on how to get started. The document is two pages that can be photocopied onto a single, two-sided sheet of paper. A great starting point!
Fair Trade Principles: A series of five, one-page flyers that illustrate the core principles behind Fair Trade and provide side-by-side comparisons between fairly traded and conventionally traded coffee.
Making the Case for Fair Trade Coffee: A presentation that provides a succinct, visually compelling summary of the coffee crisis, Fair Trade and the CRS Fair Trade Program. Educate yourself or others in your parish, school and community.

Work of Human Hands

Catholic Relief Services and our nonprofit partner, A Greater Gift, offer you high quality, fairly traded handcrafts and gourmet food items from disadvantaged producers all over the world through theWork of Human Handsprogram.

Download these resources to help you participate in theWork of Human Handsprogram. Order for yourself, or you can organize a consignment sale.

Catalog Order Form: This form is for your personal use when ordering from the catalog.
Step by Step Guide to a Consignment Sale: A copy of the material on our website, this document gives you organizing tips for a Work of Human Hands sale.
Invitation flyer: Make copies of this flyer to hand out to members of your community inviting them to a sale
Account Information Form and Sales Agreement: This form is to establish a consignment account.
Preselected Package Form: Having A Greater Gift preselect your Work of Human Hands items simplifies the sale process. Use this form to select the right size for your community!
Long form for Consignment Selection: If you want to pick your own items for consignment, use this form.

Coffee

Making the Case for Fair Trade Coffee
Fair Trade Principles
Solidarity in a Cup: The CRS Fair Trade Coffee Story
: This 15-minute multi-media presentation introduces you to the farmers who grow your coffee in Nicaragua, explains what CRS is doing to support them, and suggests eight ways you can help!
Put your money where your heart is.: This three page document is designed to help parish administrators and volunteers who feel torn between their desire to purchase Fair Trade coffee as part of their commitment to justice and their need to balance tight parish budgets. No easy answers here, but some perspectives and questions that may help facilitate those difficult decisions.
Where Does Your Coffee Come From?: This virtual tour takes you to the mountains of Nicaragua and introduces you to the farmers who grow the coffee we enjoy everyday. Click on the link above to follow your coffee from the farm all the way to your cup.
Fair Trade Value Chain: This two-page document shows how Fair Trade puts more of your coffee dollars directly into the hands of small-scale farmers than the conventional system, in which middlemen, processors and coffee companies can earn more than the men and women who actually grow the coffee.
The Coffee Tour: Take a virtual tour of the coffee production process, and meet CRS-supported Fair Trade coffee farmers in Nicaragua.

Chocolate

Fair Trade is an excellent way to integrate Catholic Social Teaching into middle school and secondary school classrooms. Use these modules to help bring CST into your lessons!

Making the Case for Fair Trade Chocolate: Curious if about chocolate and how it can help make the world sweeter for your community and cocoa farmers? Check out this presentation and share it with teachers, principals, parents and students. It explains what Fair Trade is, why it is important and how you can "Raise Money Right" for special projects. Talking points accompany this presentation.
Instruction Sheet: This full-color one-page flyer introduces the CRS Fair Trade Chocolate Program and suggests four ways that you can make the world sweeter for cocoa farmers: buy Fair Trade chocolate, give Fair Trade chocolate as a gift, sell Fair Trade chocolate as an ethical fundraiser, and encourage store managers in your community to serve Divine brand Fair Trade chocolate wherever chocolate is sold.
Tally Sheet: Distribute this handy tally sheet to volunteers in your Fair Trade chocolate fundraiser to help keep close track of who sells what
Tell a Divine Story: Interested in promoting Divine chocolate in your community but don't know how? This resource suggests some specific talking points that will help you explain to store managers what we love so much about Divine chocolate, from the quality of the product to the quality of life it works to achieve for cocoa farmers.
Bean-to-Bar: A colorful 11" x 17" poster that shows you where Divine Fair Trade chocolate comes from and, more importantly, how you can get some!
Order Form: Fill out this form and return it via mail or fax to order your Divine Fair Trade chocolate!
The Cocoa Tour: Take a virtual tour of the cocoa production process, and meet the cocoa farmers in Ghana who put the heart in Divine Fair Trade chocolate.
Chocolate Rap: Day Chocolate, the company that produces Divine brand Fair Trade chocolate, sponsored a Fair Trade rap competition in England. The winners: two 13-year-old artists who call themselves Shudda and Ablaze. They recorded their rap, "Dubble Trouble," with British rap star Shystie. The title refers to the Dubble bar, Day Chocolate's leading product for youth in England.Download the lyrics.

Teaching Modules on Fair Trade and Catholic Social Teaching

Sure, Fair trade chocolate is a tasty treat and great way to fundraise, but it is also an engaging way to learn about Fair Trade and Catholic Social Teaching (CST). CRS has developed learning modules for middle and secondary school classrooms to explore the principles of CST in the context of Fair Trade. They are full of background material, interactive lesson ideas, and useful class assignments. Educators can use the eight modules as a complete unit or pick and choose the ones that work for them. They can also be inspired by what other educators have done (these units were developed by Eileen Harrington of the Diocese of Madison!) and connected to other useful resources.

Module 1: Life and Dignity of the Human Person: Introductions to CST, wealth distribution, the global trading system, and the culture of Ghana are offered over the course of three lessons.
Module 2: Solidarity: With the theme "Ghanaian Cocoa Growers and me," this module examines and explores similarities between Ghana and the United States
Module 3: Human Rights and Responsibilities: Analyzing what "fair" and "unfair" means to students helps them recognize rights and responsibilities
Module 4: The Common Good: Kids explore chocolate consumption in their communities and discover their power in the economy
Module 5: Stewardship: With links to biology, environmental science, social studies and religion, this module examines environmental issues associated with cocoa.
Module6: Social Nature of Humanity: Using a travel journal from Ghana, this module explores the benefits of working in community
Module 7: Option for the Poor: Rock star Bono's speech at a national prayer breakfast helps focus attention on the needs of the poor and how Fair Trade addresses them.
Module 8: Subsidiarity: The CST principle with a funny name, subsidiarity helps students explore the many facets of Fair Trade.

Additional Resources From Fair Trade Allies

Many other Fair Traders are involved in teaching about Fair Trade at the middle school and high school levels, and we encourage you to access their resources too!

Downloads and Links

Our colleagues at Catholic Agency for Overseas Development and Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund in the United Kingdom have developed a Fair Trade Action Guide for Schools called "Make Your Mark." The guide is full of great ideas and creative learning experiences. One challenge for U.S. students can be to identify and compare the parallel Fair Trade labeling (or “mark”) systems used in the United Kingdom and United States! Speaking of resources from across the pond, check out the Fair Trade teaching pack developed by Divine Chocolate in London.

Back here in the United States, our partners at the National Catholic Educators Association have worked with us to produce "Engaging Faith in the World" by Sr. Katherine Feely, SND, a guide that devotes an entire unit to Fair Trade chocolate. To find it and other great resources, visit CRS Education: Going Global with Youth, an educational gateway that looks at global issues through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.

Another great CRS resource is the Food Fast program involving youth in a meaningful fasting experience. The 2007-2008 Food Fast program manual focuses on Fair Trade, providing learning and reflection materials in both English and Spanish.

The popular book by Jeffry O. Korgen, Solidarity will Transform the World, dedicates an entire chapter to the work of CRS with coffee farmers in Nicaragua. The accompanying study guide provides discussion questions and points of reflection related to Catholic Social Teaching.

If you aren’t able to dedicate entire units to Fair Trade, consider the "Five Minutes a Week" approach designed by Elizabeth Cole, Sarah Yanes, and Laura Duca, CRS Fair Trade Ambassadors who traveled to Ghana with us in 2007!

Several organizations, such as the Fair Trade Resource Network, do your research for you by providing a collection of materials to help you and your students to "learn up" about Economic Justice. TransFair USA has developed a comprehensive K-12 curriculum divided into three units for different age groups. Each unit highlights our global interdependence by focusing on three different Fair Trade foods: Chocolate Explorers (K-2), Banana Bonanza (3-6), and Coffee Connections (7-12). You may also be interested in the advocacy of Global Exchange and the International Labor Rights Fund , which have both undertaken campaigns demanding justice on cocoa farms.

Watch the farmers at Work!

To witness what life is like for Fair Trade producers, check out our multimedia resources.

The CRS Fair Trade Network

Sign up for the CRS Fair Trade Network: The CRS Fair Trade Network is an online community of action that mobilizes Catholics and other socially conscious consumers to build the Fair Trade movement.
The Fair Trader Newsletter: The CRS Fair Trader provides information on the Fair Trade movement in the United States, the CRS Fair Trade Program, and opportunities for you to get involved in your community.
Tell Your Friends About CRS Fair Trade: Refer your friends to the CRS Fair Trade Network. They'll get an invitation to join, via e-mail.