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IRTF Events Calendar

At A Glance
May 7, 2025: Equal Exchange Book Club!
4-5pm
online

Equal Exchange invites you to their Book Club Meet-ups: Apr 16 and May 7

Join us for an engaging discussion of the Grocery Barons chapter from Austin Frerick’s book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry, where we will explore the impact of multinational corporations on the global coffee industry. In this session, we’ll dive into how these powerful “coffee barons” manipulate prices, exploit farmers, and perpetuate inequality within the coffee supply chain. 
 
As an independent coffee company, Equal Exchange stands in stark contrast to these monopolistic systems. These chapters (Coffee Barons, Grocery Barons) align closely with our work as an independent food company and our mission to challenge monopolistic systems—particularly in the coffee industry. Together, we’ll reflect on the ways Frerick’s analysis of the coffee industry relates to our mission to create more equitable, sustainable, and fair trade practices. We’ll think through how Equal Exchange’s model—focused on direct relationships with farmers, cooperatives, and ethical sourcing—challenges these corporate giants and promotes a more just food system. This will be an opportunity for us to connect, learn, and discuss how we can continue to support positive change in the coffee industry. We look forward to your insights and hope to see you there!
 

To access the book without having to buy it (though purchasing is always an option too!), we recommend checking with your local public library. You can either borrow the book directly or use the Libby app, a free platform that lets you borrow digital books from your library. It's a great way to access the book at no cost.

If you're interested in joining the book club, register for the dates to discuss. If you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this email. You can register for one or both of the dates.

 
May 8, 2025: Equal Exchange: The Small Farmer Fund and You
1:00 PM 2:15 pm EST
online

Equal Exchange has a long history of working with small farmer co-operatives outside of our traditional role as a buyer. We have supported and implemented a number of projects and grant programs that complement their commercial activities while providing support to our cooperative partners, who continue to face unprecedented challenges. Equal Exchange has successfully helped co-ops to bring about systemic change, build capacity, innovate, and train current and future leaders. The work has been collaborative, and the impact has been far-reaching across coffee, cacao, banana, and sugar producer co-ops.

Over the last decade, partner co-op farms have been engaged in a USAID program known as the Cooperative Development Program (CDP), working with more than a dozen cooperatives in six different countries on productivity, governance, quality, gender equity, youth inclusion, and adaptation to climate change.

With the abrupt termination of USAID, these advances have ground to a halt. But they are determined to find a way forward and preserve key elements of our CDP project work at whatever scale they can reliably fund.

We have seen the impact that these programs can make on cooperative communities, both in bringing about change and in reinforcing their businesses so that farmers can stay on their land. It’s important that we continue to build on this success.

To this end Equal Exchange has created a new Small Farmer Fund as a way to pool community resources and continue this important development work. 

Please join to learn more about this work and help alert more people to this additional opportunity to support small farmers and their cooperatives.

Register here: https://equalexchange.zoom.us/meeting/register/qzvFY777SrCIo-7TPSITjw#/registration

May 10, 2025: Earth Fest at West Shore
10am-4pm
20401 Hilliard Blvd, Rocky River OH 44116

To volunteer at the IRTF table at this event, please call 216 961 0003 or email volunteer@irtfcleveland.org.

Mark your calendars NOW for this year’s EarthFest 2025 at West Shore! Last year was our second attempt at hosting such an event, and it was a huge success with over 40 vendors (both profits and non-profits) in attendance. We raised over $5,000 for our church and donated to the Western Reserve Land Conservatory, aiding them in their Urban Green Space Program, which raised the profile of West Shore in the western suburbs.

This year we plan to donate to the Cuyahoga Valley Conservancy, supporting their educational programs for disadvantaged youths.  We attracted approximately 200 attendees with the hopes of inspiring, educating, and connecting people interested in preserving our environment.

The steering committee wants to make 2025 an even bigger success, but we need your help.  Please look for our table in the Rotunda on Sundays and volunteer with one or more of the numerous opportunities we are offering.  We have everything from hanging signs to helping with parking, baking cookies, EV car demos, and contacting vendors and non-profits with our flyers.  Put your words into action! 

Our mission continues: TO educate, connect and inspire anyone in the  Cleveland area who has concerns about environmental issues. This event matches up very nicely with the major principles by which our Church is governed to “respect the interdependent web of existence” and promote a healthy environment for all people with which we share this beautiful planet.

For more information, contact Co-chairs:

Flyers:
PDF icon 2025_05_10_-_earthfest_at_westshoreunitarianuniversalistchurch.pdf