Fair Trade Committee Kicks Off Month-Long Exhibit at Library

More than seven months after being designated , one Teaneck group continues to embrace the global movement of providing merchants and farmers with fair wages and safe working environments in exchange for their promise to follow environmentally friendly practices and eliminate child slave labor.

A Teaneck committee comprised of Fair Trade supporters seeks to invite more residents to join them in their grass-roots efforts of encouraging local retailers to carry Fair Trade-certified products.

To get their message out, the Fair Trade Teaneck Steering Committee has set up an exhibit at the designed to explain the purpose and merits of Fair Trade. The group also is in the process of setting up a petition on their website and Facebook page in order to gather the names of 1,000 Teaneck residents.

With the support of 1,000 people, committee members said they’ll have the strength in numbers necessary to persuade retailers to carry Fair Trade-certified products.

Committee chair Dennis Klein said his group relies on the citizens of Teaneck to keep the Fair Trade campaign growing.

“The way that works is by having each one of us go back to our organizations – synagogues, churches, mosques and other nonprofits – to begin to propose the idea of offering Fair Trade-certified products in order to make this movement work in Teaneck and the developing world, where the need is so great and so important,” Klein said.

Committee member Jennifer Glass is spearheading the “1,000 Teaneck Citizens for Fair Trade” campaign.

“The goal is to be able to go to large retailers and other retailers in town and say, ‘Mr. and Ms. Merchant, we are a 1,000 people strong group of individuals in Teaneck. We want to be able to find Fair Trade products, and we want to be able to find them easily,’” Glass said. “The more people we have, the better it’s going to be.”

Glass said the petition will be online sometime during the weekend.

ARTWORK AND MOVIES

At Thursday’s opening reception at the library, Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg and members of the community came out to view the 28-panel exhibit that includes images and handwritten postcards of Indian tea growers and Guatemalan coffee growers who have benefited from fair business practices.

Visitors also got to sample Fair Trade tea and coffee, courtesy of the .

“There are many reasons for me to be proud of living in Teaneck and being mayor of Teaneck,” said Hameeduddin. “This is surely one of them.”

Hameeduddin said he was impressed with the Fair Trade Teaneck committee and with their courage for taking on a global movement. The mayor mentioned a book he was fond of called Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken, and he encouraged others to read it.

“One of the things that Hawken talks about, as well as what I’ve always kind of mimicked, is that if you look at the DNA in every society, it’ll always be components of economics, social and political,” Hameeduddin said. “And it’s the economics that drives the social and the political. And if you have good economics, you’ll have good social programs, and you’ll have good politicians. And that is what this is all about.”

Weinberg said it was the “small steps” that people make that contribute to the improvement in the lives of others around the world.

“This Fair Trade exhibit will help Teaneck residents be more conscious about the necessity of buying products that are manufactured or grown under proper conditions by workers who have been treated fairly,” she said.

Throughout the month, visitors to the library will be able to view the exhibit, learn about Fair Trade books available at the library and have the opportunity to see movies that focus on Fair Trade issues.

The movies include:

• Black Gold, about coffee and trade, that will be shown at 7 p.m. June 8
• The Dark Side of Chocolate, which focuses on the cocoa industry, that will be shown at 7:30 p.m. June 15

Teaneck resident Bud Glick came out to the reception because he said he was interested in seeing the exhibit and learning more about Fair Trade.

“That’s why we moved here,” said Glick, who was standing next to his wife. “Teaneck is such a diverse and forward-thinking community.”

A VIABLE MARKET FOR FAIR TRADE

Bruce Prince, owner of the  and a member of the Fair Trade Teaneck Steering Committee, sells Fair Trade-certified coffee, tea and other merchandise.

“There’s this group of items we sell by the Global Mamas, which come from this African Village that was empowered by the Fair Trade movement,” Prince said. “The women in this village created a co-op, and they make pot holders and aprons. And what’s unique about the items is that they’re signed with the names of the women who made them.”

Prince said he has customers who specifically visit his store to buy Fair Trade-certified products.

“The Teaneck community is broad-minded like that, and they want to make a difference in the lives of others,” he said. “Specifically, with the coffee, once customers try the Fair Trade version, they almost always continue to purchase it because its high quality meets, if not exceeds, that of other premium, non-Fair Trade brands.”

Despite the uptick in Fair Trade purchases, Prince said there will always be shoppers who buy based on price.   

“You’ll have people who react to the price of Fair Trade items and purchase them in spite of the cost, and then there are others who only shop based solely on price,” he said. “But, the choice is there.”

TEANECK'S FAIR TRADE BUSINESSES

The following are a list of Teaneck’s Fair Trade Retailers, Services and Organizations:

Bauer Printing                                                   

Bookstore at Fairleigh Dickinson University

Ethical Culture Society

Gourmet Dining, Inc. at 

 Terrace Cafe

Military Families Speak Out

Office of Global Learning at Fairleigh Dickinson University

Presbyterian Church of Teaneck

Puffin Foundation

Stop and Shop

Teaneck Chamber of Commerce