Changing the world one purchase at a time

from the Daytona Beach News Journal

Imagine being able to help fight poverty by shopping. Members of the Fair Trade Federation have taken that idea and turned it into a network of businesses that offers products from sources that directly benefit workers in impoverished nations.

On May 10, people in 70 countries will mark World Fair Trade Day to highlight the importance and advantages of fair trade. The event will include an attempt to break the record for the world's biggest coffee break, a feat designed mainly to bring more attention to the cause.

Participating locally will be the Gifts With Humanity, a fair trade store at 2808 Hibiscus Drive (Units 4 and 5) in Edgewater.

"When 50 percent of the world's populations live on less than $2 a day, it really doesn't take that much to make a difference," said Kevin Ward, who co-owns the gift and craft warehouse with his wife, Renice Jones.

The couple met while doing volunteer work in Kenya, where they were exposed to the deplorable conditions common to millions of workers around the world. They also discovered great beauty in the crafts of the native people and wanted to help market those products in a way that would not cheat the artisans out of the profits they deserved.

"We are essentially trying to lift people out of poverty by their own labor," Ward said. "It is not charity. We're not giving anything for nothing. The money they receive is well earned.'

Gifts With Humanity is a brand name of Global Crafts, a wholesale Fair Trade Organization that has grown in Volusia County from a home business five years ago to a company with annual revenue of $1 million, helping 40 producer partners from 20 developing countries find markets in the U.S.

Ward and Jones started with a storefront on Flager Avenue in 2002, but after realizing they could vastly increase sales by devoting more time to marketing products on the Internet, they closed the shop and began expanding their business online.

"Since then, we have doubled in size," Ward said of the warehouse on Hibiscus. "We now have 6,500 square feet of space, including our new showroom area.'

The showroom will officially open to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m., which will kick off the World Fair Trade Day celebration. The coffee break event will take place at 3 p.m. and participants must sign in to be counted.

"We believe the workers of the world should be able to have food and shelter and raise their families in a healthy environment," Ward said. "Part of this project is to hopefully get people to think very hard about the sustainability of our planet, as well as the people living on it."

Details about World Fair Trade Day can be found online at www.ifat.org and ftrn.org. Products offered by Ward and Jones can be seen at giftswithhumanity.org and globalcraftsb2b.com.