It is one thing to hear about Trading Post from us -- of course we believe in it! We want you to hear from the people in the trenches who have launched a Trading Post in their church. We love that Trading Post can be scaled to meet the needs of the church. We have a youth group in Winnetka, Illinois running a post every Wednesday night, a Cafe manager who is selling fair trade chocolate alongside his coffee, an outreach pastor who brought Fair Trade goods into the Cafe at her church, and Seeds Bookstore at Willow Creek Community Church selling products alongside their other resources.
Highland Park Baptist
“Highland Park Baptist Church has always been a mission minded church knowing that we can make a difference in our world by just adjusting a few of our purchases has excited our people and they have embraced this program.”
Rev. Cheryl Kimble
Highland Park Baptist Church
Manchester Christian Church
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“In 2008, the question for our staff became, ‘How can we all share the love of Christ through compassion and empathy – using our new understanding to grow in our hearts in the area of justice?’ We know that there's power in an individual's life story and we found that Trade As One offers beautiful and unique Fair Trade gifts. Most people in our community don't know that the majority of the developing world lives on less than $2 a day. It was time to get the word out and offer a way to help turn that statistic around.”
Lisa Mazur
Manchester Christian Church
Vintage Faith Church
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“We had a successful Trade as One boutique in our church and wanted to build on that. The Trading Post was the ideal way to provide an on going opportunity for our church and community to be able to continue to buy fair trade.”
Kathy Bishop
Vintage Faith Church
Willow Creek North Shore
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“I thought the message around Fair Trade was very compelling - but how do we move beyond Fair Trade just being an ‘event’ and into people's lives & choices. I knew we had to keep coming back to this - how do we keep it in front of our people and not let it just be another ‘flavor of the month’? As I was looking through the Trade as One website, the whole idea of the Trading Post made sense and I thought, why not add a few items to our current bookstore? The process was already in place at TaO - so it was really easy!”
Jackie Herron-Whitfield
Willow Creek North Shore
Winnetka Covenant Church
“We are selling every day items to people and making it convenient for them to buy fair trade by bringing the products straight to them. It has become routine for church members to pick up their rice and olive oil needed for that month, while they were already going to attend the church meal. This has created a project for the kids to participate in, and take full ownership of. They have learned so much about what it means to ‘be fair trade,’ and why it is such an important consideration to make in our society. They are becoming responsible and well informed adults in the process.”
Kat Magnuson
Winnetka Covenant Church
Cornerstone
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First Baptist Church of Austin
Willow Creek
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