A warm pot of coffee is often the centerpiece of fellowship hour, celebrations and other gatherings. As the second most heavily traded commodity in the world, coffee is a direct link between our communities and farming communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

One of the many, many things we learned about at Annual Conference was "Good Coffee for a Good Cause". This is an UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) project linking congregations with small farmers and their families through fair trade.

Through the UMCOR Coffee Project, farmers earn a fair price for their products, have access to affordable credit and gain a long term trading partner they can trust, a fair trade organization called Equal Exchange. With your support, these communities are able to invest in education, health care, and agricultural improvements. In addition, for each case of coffee purchased by United Methodist Congregations through the project Equal Exchange makes a contribution to UMCOR programs which support the human rights and social justice work of community-based cooperatives in coffee-growing regions. By offering Equal Exchange coffee at fellowship hour or as part of a fundraiser, your congregation can share fellowship with our global neighbors as we help them to help themselves.

Many other churches in the conference are participating in this project and it seems that Faith UMC would respond in its usually generous way. Please stop at the coffee pot in the gathering area to pick up a brochure about this project. Twelve oz. bags of coffee will be for sale for $7. Just leave your donation in the tin on the counter and take your coffee home to try. Included in the selection is Organic Decaf, Organic Breakfast Blend, Organic Mind, Body and Soul and Organic French Roast. We will also be serving Equal Exchange Fellowship Blend Coffee on Sunday mornings. Give it a try. (After doing some research we discovered that our fair trade price is less than other quality fair trade prices in local markets and specialty shops.) Thank you for your help.

Every cup is a cup of justice!