Chicago high school, parish participate in fair-trade coffee program

Published: 2004-07-01

CHICAGO (CNS) -- When faculty and staff members at St. Gregory High School in Chicago reach for the communal coffee pot, they get a full-bodied cup of java and help coffee growers make a living at the same time. For members of the Faith Justice Committee at St. Anne Parish in suburban Barrington, serving fair-trade coffee at their events is "an easy way to practice justice," said Marilyn Aleide, a member of St. Anne and business manager at St. Gregory. The school and the justice committee are participating in a fair-trade coffee program promoted by Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas development and relief agency. "The coffee has a story to tell," Michael Sheridan, CRS' fair trade program officer, told The Catholic New World, Chicago's archdiocesan newspaper. "It's a story about relationships, the relationship of the people who grew it to the people that drink it." Last year CRS became one of 10 religiously based partners of Equal Exchange, a for-profit company and the largest U.S. importer of fair-trade coffee and tea.

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