Though the recent weather has made many forget that the holiday season is just a few weeks away, the Cal Poly Fair Trade Club hasn’t forgotten it’s the season for giving.
This year the Cal Poly Trade Club is beginning what they hope will be an annual fund-raiser to benefit fair trade certified cocoa bean farmers in the Ivory Coast. Members of the club will sell holiday gift packs full of fair trade coffee, sugar and latte mugs for $20.
And for the club, the goal is all about scales.
“Basically we’re raising money so (African farmers) can buy scales,” said club adviser Tom Neuhaus, a food science and nutrition associate professor. “A way to help the farmers is to give them (items) that will help their business, and one of those things is a scale. If they can weigh the beans themselves, they won’t get ripped off by the middle man.”
Several members of the club already began selling the packs on campus in the University Union Plaza from 7 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and will continue today, Nov. 28 and Dec. 1.