The Boston Fair Trade Music Festival will take place on Saturday August 11thfrom 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Prudential Center on Boylston Street in support of Fair Trade Boston. Ben & Jerry’s will provide free ice cream all afternoon to concert goers. Headlining will be Massachusetts’ own Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers.  Additional performers include The Boston Phoenix’s “Boston’s Best Act 2012” Gentlemen Hall.

The Boston Fair Trade Music Festival, returning for its second year, will feature some of Boston’s best acts including Gentlemen Hall & local singer/songwriter Cara Brindisi.  This free show, presented by Ben & Jerry’s, aims to feature the great bands of Boston’s burgeoning music scene while also showcasing the city’s commitment to social causes, in particular Fair Trade.  Boston was declared a Fair Trade Town in 2010 and organizations such as Fair Trade Boston continue to educate Bostonians on the importance of Fair Trade in the community and how the city can localize a global movement.  Fair Trade Boston will be onsite at the festival handing out information to festival goers.

For more information, contact Ryan Midden at ryanmidden@gmail.com

Last year, over 200 Fair Trade Town & University organizers from 80 campaigns and 26 states gathered in Philadelphia, PA.

Stay tuned for more information on registration, lodging, scholarships, and volunteer opportunities.  Until then, find out more about last year’s conference here, and make sure to check out this video from last year’s conference!

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Over the last couple of months, we’ve been gathering new leaders in Cambridge and holding several planning meetings to map out our work to make Cambridge the next Fair Trade Town.
What is a Fair Trade Town exactly? (We’re glad you asked!) Essentially, it’s a campaign centered around a town or city to connect consumers and government to the growers and producers who make our products. Fair Trade Towns campaigns measure their success through five specific benchmarks. (Click HERE to learn more about the specific criteria that made Boston a Fair Trade Town.)
One of the criteria of a Fair Trade Town is that that institutions within a community (churches, synagogues, mosques, hospitals, schools, non-profits and businesses) will use fair trade products in their regular activity. Typically, this means that all coffee & tea served in at a church’s coffee hour or staffs lounge of a business or non-profit will be Fair Trade. (For every 5,000 people in a community we seek to have at least 1 institution using Fair Trade goods).
Serving Fair Trade tea and coffee is a concrete way that an institution can demonstrate how their values align with the protecting workers rights on a global way. It also means that they are serving premium products to their members and/or employees.
The 2010 census data list’s Cambridge’s population at about 105,000 residents. Remember, for every 5,000 people in a community we seek to have at least 1 institution using Fair Trade goods. So we need just 21 institutions serving Fair Trade products. We’ve already documented a few but we need more.
If you know of an institution located in Cambridge that is serving Fair Trade coffee and/or tea to their members and/or employees please let us know by sending us the information requested on this FORM.  We’ll use this information to calculate the institutions needed to make Cambridge a Fair Trade Town.

Questions? Contact events@bostonfaithjustice.org

While churches from every different social, political and theological persuasion are increasingly embracing Fair Trade, we have only begun to scratch thesurface of the potential that is latent in America’s churches. When community groups like Fair Trade Town campaigns and churches collaborate through Fair Trade, the impact is felt around the globe.

Earlier this summer the Boston Faith & Justice Network, Fair Trade Towns USA and Trade as One hosted a webinar exploring how churches can use Fair Trade as a way to engage their community, and how Fair Trade Town organizers can most effectively reach out to the churches.  After much anticipation (and even more tech headaches!), we finally have an archived version of the webinar available. You can download it (for free) here!

Please register and join us next Tuesday, June 14th at 1pm (EST) for our first webinar co-hosted by Fair Trade Towns USA and Trade As One .  The webinar be discussing different ways in which churches can effectively engage the community in Fair Trade. For a helpful background on the American church’s current engagement in the Fair Trade movement check out the recent article in “Sojourners” blog written by BFJN Executive Director, Ryan Scott McDonnell.

One of Fair Trade Boston’s strongest partners, Autonomie Project shares a passion for ethical textile production. AP supplies high-quality garments at competitive prices to consumers that wish to make purchases with a positive social and environmental impact without having to sacrifice their own personal style, or break their wallet. In addition to a feel-good and fun shopping experience, Autonomie aims to raise awareness about today’s most pressing global issues, hoping to inspire consumers to take action and help uplift the communities of workers around the world that produce our everyday goods.

Auntonomie Project works exclusively with small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade-certified facilities located in developing areas of the world where a portion of the funds can be used for initiatives that will affect the entire community. These initiatives include efforts such as building a health clinic or bringing a steady water supply to a small village. Autonomie provides their workers with a fair wage so they can beat out sweatshops and enjoy a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, while assisting them with the development, design, and marketing of their products so that their businesses may prosper and become thriving participants in a reconfigured global marketplace.

Autonomie Project offers a variety of organic, sweatshop-free and vegan products, anywhere from printed T-shits, handbags, shoes, and even baby clothes. Their selection is awesome, their quality is fantastic, and for how much goodness you’re paying for, Autonomie prices are a great deal!

Check out their online store to take advantage of their Back to School Sale going on until

Labor Day!

http://www.autonomieproject.com/

Autonomie products can also be purchased locally at Greenward and Sudo Shoes both located right on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge!