What a challenging year it has been! Despite the pandemic, Penn State Brandywine’s Fair Trade subcommittee continued our efforts to maintain the Fair Trade status of our university, and to raise awareness and educate students, faculty, staff, and community about Fair Trade. While some on-campus events were canceled, we were able to continue our campaign in different ways by adding more resources online, holding virtual events and joining forces with other clubs once on-campus events were possible.
This year Fair Trade sub-committee moved into the newly formed Chancellor’s Commission on Sustainability. Dr. Mark Boudreau and Dr. Julie Stanton were faculty co-chairs, and Vippy Yee, Dr. Marina Skyers, Dr. Lynn Hartle, and Prof. Zoia Pavlovskaia were members of the Fair Trade sub-committee.
We missed engaging with everyone in-person, but it gave us room to work on projects we wouldn’t otherwise. For example, we worked to create the Fair Trade library guide https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/FairTrade and the Fair Trade webpage for the PSU Brandywine website https://www.brandywine.psu.edu/fair-trade that will be great ongoing resources for future generations of students and scholars. We also worked to update our Fair Trade blog during the Fall 2020 semester which is now hosted on the PSU website https://sites.psu.edu/fairtrade/.
We learned about the importance of flexibility and we tried different ways to engage with students by holding both virtual and in-person events. During Spring 2021 semester, we co-hosted “Fair Trade Chocolate is More Loveful: Ben Conard, Five North, and Valentine’s Day,” which was a Zoom guest speaker event with Media Fair Trade on Wednesday, February 10, 2021. We also participated in the kickoff on campus event for the annual Social Justice week on Monday, April 12, 2021. Attendees had an opportunity to learn more about social justice and Fair Trade while sampling some Fair Trade mini chocolates and snacks.
Prof. Pavlovskaia and Penn State Brandywine students at the kickoff event for the annual Social Justice week on Monday, April 12, 2021
We as a community—staff, faculty, and students—should be embracing Fair Trade more because it aligns with both the strategic development goals of our university and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. FT is a movement to help the farmers and workers in developing countries to get paid fairly and have access to the resources (i.e., compensation, credit, technical assistance etc.) needed to provide sustainable production (World Fair Trade Organization, 2020). Consumers around the world can support the movement by purchasing FT certified products, which confirm that products meet ethical principles and environmental standards that are set in accordance with the requirements.
Classes are scheduled to resume in-person in the Fall 2021, and we are looking forward to the next academic year. In the next year, students can attend events, look for and buy FT items in the bookstore and cafeteria, and are invited to talk to Prof. Zoia Pavlovskaia if they would like to learn more and start a student club on campus.
