Fair Trade in Your School

At all levels, teachers and students are encouraged to bring fair trade into their schools. FTF members and partners provide an array of lesson plans, resources, videos, events, and opportunities for students.

Lesson Plans

• Global Exchange Lesson Plans and Activities – Resources by and for elementary, junior high, high school, and college teachers; particularly focused on the Global Exchange Chocolate Campaign.
• Marilyn Anderson Teacher’s and Parent’s Guide - Six lessons for grades 3-5 and 6-8. Lessons can be used with or without the Maya Arts and Crafts of Guatemala coloring book.
• Equal Exchange's Introduction to Fair Trade and Cooperative Economics- Composed of four units, the curriculum offers 124 pages of interactive classroom activities to raise students' awareness of the issues surrounding food production and trade. The curriculum addresses US curriculum standards for grades 4-9 and offers a flexible structure for teachers to incorporate into current lesson plans.
• Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Lesson Plans - CRS has developed learning modules for middle and secondary school classrooms to explore the principles of social justice in the context of fair trade. They have a full array of background material, interactive lesson ideas, and useful class assignments.
• Coffee Kids Curriculum - Provides students with an understanding of global trade and development. Resources useful for a variety of ages, include maps and details on the coffee process and life in coffee communities.
  
• Tools to Teach Fair Trade - The Fair Trade Resource Network has compiled curricula from around the world to assist in teaching about fair trade.

Resources

• Convert Diving Services – Easy steps from Equal Exchange to educate your dining services office about converting to fair trade.
• Organize a Campaign - Time-tested methods for jumpstarting or strengthening a fair trade campaign on college campuses from United Students for Fair Trade.

Videos 

• Awaken Your Consciousness - A thirteen minute video from Equal Exchange that takes viewers on a journey through the coffee-growing lands of Nicaragua to meet coffee farmers and learn to offer hope and dignity to farmers across the globe by transforming business and trade.
• Coffee Profits Children - To receive a copy of the DVD from Pura Vida Coffee, please visit the donation center on their website and note in the comments section that you would like a DVD or contact them. A $10 donation or more is requested to help cover costs, but is not required.
• Black Gold – Trace Tadesse Meskela’s journey from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to London, UK, to Seattle, WA in his effort save his struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy.
• Other Videos - The Fair Trade Resource Network lists videos from around the world that exhibit the strong connections that consumers have with those who make the goods we use and the food we eat.

Events

• Fundraisers – Raise money for your school by offering unique fair trade products.
• Rhythm Events - Interactive, fun and meaningful experiences with fair trade instruments from JAMTOWN. Great for all ages.
• Fair Trade Open House - Trails to Bridges will fill the hallways with treasures for sale from close to 20 countries. 
• Adopt a Chocolate Tree - Help the inhabitants of Ecuador's rainforest and protect the Earth's biological heritage by adopting a cacao tree with Yachana Gourmet.
• Global Trade Soccer Game - Use Fair Trade Sports' equipment and Oxfam America's guidelines to explain the rules of international trade through soccer
  
• Fair Trade Events Calendar - Find out what great fair trade events are taking place in your area with the Fair Trade Resource Networks' events calendar.

 Discounts

• Teacher Discounts - Forests of the World offers teachers a 10% discount on all products. This discount is available upon provision of name, teacher ID number, school name, school address, and phone number. It is available only on direct purchases by teachers, not purchases made through school district.

Opportunities for Students

• Mercado Global Student Entrepreneur Program - Student groups across the country affiliate with Mercado Global to make a difference in the lives of families abroad by expanding the market for fair trade goods.  Through marketing efforts on campus and in their communities, student affiliates provide fair wage employment for cooperative members and additional funding for local scholarships.

• Guide to Internships in Coffee-Producing Communities - Published by the Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and Oxfam America, this multi-purpose handbook helps students prepare for internships in CAN’s partner communities in Central America and Mexico.

Student Groups

• United Students for Fair Trade - A network of student organizations advocating around fair trade products, policies, and principles, USFT organizes over 100 active student groups in the US,  provides leadership development and capacity building through intensive international exchanges and skill-building conferences, and serves as a resource group for student-based affiliates.
• Canadian Student Fair Trade Network - A network representing thousands of students, they seek to shift the purchasing-decisions of individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments across Canada to choices that encompass a respect for human rights and dignity, and environmental sustainability as understood over decades by the Fair Trade movement.
• Oxfam America’s CHANGE Initiative - College students entering their sophomore or junior year can take advantage of Oxfam America's leadership training and become skilled and knowledgeable agents of change. Exposed to the international development issues that direct Oxfam's work, CHANGE Leaders use their new skills and insights to run Oxfam campaigns on their campuses and in their local communities.
• ENGAGE – ENGAGE builds the next generation of global citizens by translating the study abroad experience into lifelong connections and cooperative action between peoples and social movements working toward a just and sustainable world.