Teaneck Fair Trade Leader Named to National Committee

The following announcement was submitted by Teaneck Fair Trade: 

Fair Trade Towns USA named Dennis Klein, Ph.D., Fair Trade Teaneck committee chair, to its Fair Trade Towns National Steering Committee.

Klein will join some of the most active and respected members of the Fair Trade movement. The National Steering Committee includes the leadership of the Fair Trade Federation, a North American trade association of organizations fully committed to Fair Trade; Fair Trade USA, the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States; and organizers from small and large towns who are on the cutting edge of community organizing at the grassroots, community level. Fair Trade Towns USA is an affiliate of Fair Trade USA.

Klein started the Fair Trade Teaneck campaign in 2010 with the formation of a local steering committee. By October of that year, the committee helped eight retailers and eight service organizations become Fair Trade providers by offering certified Fair Trade products. Once it obtained the endorsement of the Township Council, Teaneck received Fair Trade Towns USA’s official declaration as the 21st Fair Trade Town in the United States.

The international movement started in 2000 in England; there are currently some 32 declared Fair Trade Towns in the United States and more than 1200 worldwide.

A professor of history at Kean University and director of its Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Klein, along with his committee, caught the attention of Fair Trade Towns USA as one of the most active campaigns in the U.S. Its Fair Trade signs on Route 4, film entries in the Teaneck International Film Festival, Fair Trade Sabbath weekends, innovative Fair Trade buyers guide and, most recently, high-profile public speaking events have earned Teaneck two national Fair Trade Towns grants. In November, Klein received an invitation from Fair Trade Towns USA to represent the United States at the International Fair Trade Towns Conference in Poland, where he moderated two panels. The Fair Trade Teaneck committee is now exploring a partnership with the global south where Fair Trade commodities are produced.

Fair Trade is an effort to empower consumers to vote with their dollars for fair prices, better working conditions, environmental stewardship, and brighter futures for the people who make the high-quality products that consumers buy every day. The Fair Trade Towns USA campaign raises consumer awareness, increases the availability of Fair Trade products, and drives sales in order to help more than 2.2 million farming families out of poverty to economic self-sufficiency. The Fair Trade Towns national steering committee is responsible for determining criteria for Fair Trade recognition and developing a strategic plan for new campaigns and partnerships.