What is the number one best seller at Four Corners?
Coffee.
We sell a crazy amount of coffee. For many of our customers, coffee was their first exposure to fair trade practices. Milwaukee drinks a lot coffee and luckily for us, the roasters in the city make many fair trade or socially responsible options for your morning cup.
One of the first fair trade coffee importers and roasters in the city was the Mt Meru Coffee Project, a joint venture between the Diocese of Meru, ELCT, (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania) and the Greater Milwaukee Synod, ELCA, (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Their churches were joined in a global partnership in 1996, and in 1999, a visiting coffee farmer from Meru asked the life changing question, “why don’t you buy coffee from us?”
Many coffee growers around the world are isolated from the global market, and must trust outside buyers to pay them a fair, true price for their crop. Trust is hard to come by, and farmers are, more often than not, paid much less than the global price of coffee. The Mt Meru Coffee Project pays the farmers 20% of the retail price, usually 20-50% more than they would receive from a traditional buyer. With this sustainable income, farmers are able to send their children to school (since they no longer need to depend on their children for extra labor), update their equipment to make the work more efficient, and use extra funds to support village markets and farms in their communities.
The scope of the Project has expanded from 200 farmers to more than 2,000. The partnership between the churches has given the project a trustworthiness and legitimacy that contributes to its growth. Their motto is “Doing justice never tasted so good” and I think you’ll agree… the coffee is excellent.
Four Corners carries the regular and decaf beans, and recently added their new flavored coffees. We love that in addition to being fair trade, the Mt Meru Coffee Project is also based in Milwaukee, making our partnership with them even more special. Thanks to them for all of their hard work spreading justice to many people on the other side of the globe.
Facts and figures from Mt Meru Coffee Project and Fair Trade USA .
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