Laura Pezzini
lpezzini@mustangdaily.net
Nutrition junior Garrett Morris likes an adventure.
“I’m always looking for something crazy to do,” he said.
His next project? Garrett plans on cycling across the United States this summer, joined by his brother, Humboldt State University alumnus Brandon Morris.
But Garrett isn’t in this just for kicks. His main goal is to draw attention to Project Hope and Fairness, a nonprofit organization Garrett became involved with through nutrition associate professor and project director Tom Neuhaus, who has dedicated his life to fair trade chocolate through his work both at Cal Poly and with Mama Ganache, San Luis Obispo’s fair trade chocolate shop.
“Freshman year, I took one of the classes he was teaching, and since then I’ve been his lab assistant for three years,” Garrett said.
Project Hope and Fairness aims to promote the use of fair trade food, particularly chocolate.
“We have three missions,” Neuhaus said. “The purpose is to bring tools to cocoa farmers, to let people know about the problems with the cocoa trade and with child labor issues, and to build a cocoa study center.”
Garrett and Brandon plan on leaving the week after the spring term is over, and are looking to spend approximately eight weeks on the road.
“It looks like we’ll be leaving the week after school gets out, so probably the 21st or 22nd, and then hopefully get there in late August,” Garrett said.
Though the specific route is not yet certain — Garrett said Brandon is working out those details — it will likely take the brothers across the northern half of the United States, and they will end their journey in New York.
“We’ll be starting kind (of) off on the Lewis and Clark Trail, so starting in Oregon, and then following the Columbia River, then keeping north through Chicago and then the Great Lakes, then finally to New York,” Brandon said.
Garrett said he hopes to find establishments along the way where he can stop to generate attention for Project Hope and Fairness.
“We’re going to try to find some chocolatier shops on the way and see if they want to be doing mini-fundraisers as we go,” Garrett said. “If there’s a chocolate company somewhere else that wants to do something for us, we’ll change our route for that.”
For Brandon, the decision to join his brother didn’t take much thought.
“I just graduated college, was looking for something to do and wanted to travel a lot,” Brandon said. “It sounded like a good plan, like a fun thing to do, and now would be the best time to do it.”
Though Brandon has not been directly involved with Project Hope and Fairness, he said he is interested in the cause and looks forward to spreading the message.
“Personally, what strikes me is empowering farmers, because cocoa attracts a certain kind of person since it’s not exactly a necessity,” Brandon said. “Cocoa farmers are a good start for fair trade awareness because it’s a smaller group of people.”
Tying the trip to Project Hope and Fairness seemed like a logical step for Garrett. His connection to the organization runs deep, and last summer Garrett accompanied Neuhaus on his annual trip to Africa. Neuhaus makes yearly visits to promote fair trade and to support cocoa growers in Ghana, Cameroon and sometimes Ivory Coast.
“We visit 16 different villages every summer, and we bring tools to the villages,” Neuhaus said.
Garrett traveled with Neuhaus this past summer to five villages in Ghana, describing the experience as “eye-opening.”
“The villagers were always really happy to see us, and we brought them boots and machetes — which are their main tool — as well as chocolate,” Garrett said. “They grow cocoa beans, but they don’t really have access to any chocolate because it’s really expensive.”
The main project they will be promoting, according to Garrett, is also to raise money for the chocolate study center in Africa.
“We’re raising money to start a cocoa study center in Cameroon,” Garrett said. “That would be a place where students can go and study abroad and work with the villagers in all aspects — like a business student could go help them with financial aspects, or a nutrition major could do nutrition, or an (agriculture) major could study sustainable farming.”
Garrett said the purpose of this study center would also be to promote the production of chocolate on-site.
“We also want to do in-village production of chocolate, so they would grow the beans, and then they would ferment them and roast them to make chocolate so they can sell it there and promote their own economy,” Garrett said.
Neuhaus said the study center is already in the works, and would use buildings already constructed in the village of Ekona, Cameroon.
“The buildings are already there for us to use, and they’ll be perfect for what we want to do,” Neuhaus said. “We would teach students and farmers how to make cocoa from their beans, because the chocolate business is basically a colonial-type business and the idea is to empower the farmers.”
As far as fundraising for the bike ride, Garrett said they have reached out to local businesses and fair trade chocolatiers.
“Most of our fundraising so far has been kind of personal stuff,” Garrett said. “We’ve tried to contact a lot of local businesses and we want to do it locally.”
Big-name companies are also taking part in the ride — Garrett said Larabar and Clif Bar & Company have both offered to donate merchandise, though they are unable to provide funding.
Pear Valley Vineyards in Paso Robles is even putting together an event on July 7 to celebrate the start of Garrett and Brandon’s ride. Garrett said they would like to leave from the event, but it will take place after their departure.
“We wanted to leave from there, but we also wanted to leave right after school gets out,” Garrett said. “So we’ll be gone by then, but hopefully we’ll Skype in.”
Garrett said they would also like the finish line of the ride to promote the values of Project Hope and Fairness.
“There’s a lot of really cool fair trade chocolate shops in New York, so it would be cool if we could finish there,” he said.
Garret and Brandon are also promoting their trip online with a website under the tagline “Hope on a Bike.”
Though a transnational bike ride seems like a huge undertaking, Garrett is nonchalant about the ride itself, focusing more on the good that can come of it.
“I thought that while I’m doing it, I might as well do it for a good cause,” Garrett said.