Soup of Success; empowerment through cookies

Being a Fair Trade retailer, most of our products come from producer groups in developing countries.

However, we do support a couple of domestic projects; Soup of Success is one of these. Here’s how SOS describes itself:

3-mix cookie basket

The Soup Of Success Job & Life Skills Training Program is a not-for-profit, faith- and community-based program comprised of five main facets. Support Groups, Educational Modules, Career counselling, Mentoring & Hands-On job skills training in a small gourmet food business are all combined into an intensive five month program designed to assist local women who are dealing with difficult life situations to move forward and make positive changes in their life and career.

SOS is designed specifically for women who are struggling to get off of, or avoid having to go onto, public assistance. The participants in this program all have the desire and motivation to improve their situations and strive toward self-sufficiency.  They want to better their lives and that of their children.

SOS is based in Elkhart, IN, and with it’s parent group, Chruch Community Services assists more than 16,000 families each year.

Global Fayre has stocked SOS products (which are DELICIOUS by the way!) ever since we first started at a Farmers Market in Springfield, MO in the Spring of 2007. Their story, of empowering women to develop the skills they need for self-sufficiency, really resonates with our customers. It is also very in synch with the stories of the many producer groups that we purchase from. This is not about ‘just’ giving, it’s not about charity – it’s about helping people help themselves.

Our customers really appreciate that giving someone a gift of a cookie mix is a double gift; a gift to the recipient, of course, but a life-changing gift to the women who signed the cookie mix at SOS.

A conversation with David Crump

We’ve appreciated the coverage that our local media has given Global Fayre and Fair Trade ever since we started at the C-Street Farmers market two years ago.

The Springfield Business Journal published an interview with David this week….

http://sbj.net/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=85012&SectionID=48&SubSectionID=108&S=1

Global Fayre has a weekend of Fair Trade Fairs!

We have a crazy weekend ahead.

The store is pretty busy anyway, with the spring weather bringing visitors for near and afar to downtown Springfield, but on top of that we have two Fair Trade Fayres over the weekend!

The first is at Pathways UMC on Dale and National. It starts today (Saturday) 9am to 2pm, and then continues tomorrow for a couple of hours around the morning service. Pathways was the first event for us, this time last year, and so it’s great to be back, although just a little scary that a whole year has gone past so quickly! We’ve changed the mix of products a little – the organizers seemed really pleased with the display when we set up last night.

The second event is a new one for us. We’ll be at Unity Universalist tomorrow from 10am onwards (till mid-afternoon). They have a busy schedule, and this is their first Fayre , so we’re excited to see how that goes.

What’s really great is the feeling that 16 months after we opened the store, and just two years after we first started at the Farmers Market on Commercial Street, we are starting to make progress in raising awareness of Global Fayre and (more importantly) Fair Trade in our part of world.