Fair Trade Coffeehouse, a shop devoted to purchasing 100-percent fair-trade coffee beans, opened Feb. 21.
The owners of State Street’s newest coffeehouse, Lori Henn and Sam Chehade, purchase their beans from three different roasters. They seek to ensure small as well as large growers make a living from the sale of their exported goods.
Both Henn and Chehade have significant ties to Latin America, and Henn said this is one of the main reasons why they are dedicated to fair trade. Henn, an Oneida, Wis. native, studied Spanish and Latin American Studies in Guatemala. Chehade is from Colombia.
Fair Trade Coffeehouse is the owners’ second coffeehouse in Madison. Their first, Michaelangelo’s Coffeehouse, has been bringing fair trade coffee to the downtown area for seven years.
According to Henn, the fair trade concept allows profits to seep back into the community, as opposed to staying in the hands of a few elite members of society.
“It gives everyone a fair shake,” Chehade said.
Henn said that buying a cup of coffee at Fair Trade Coffeehouse doesn’t just benefit a local coffee shop; it benefits an entire community.
“It’s putting up a mirror and saying, ‘Let’s start thinking,'” Henn said. “Individually we have minimal impact, but collectively, in our consumerism, we can have a tremendous impact.”
Henn said they don’t charge customers more for a cup of coffee, even though it may cost the business more money to buy fair trade coffee beans.
Mike Moon, co-owner of Just Coffee, one of Fair Trade Coffeehouse’s roasters, said, “It’s about making sure that everyone who participates on the commodity chain, from the person who plants the bean to the person who drinks the coffee, is treated with dignity.”
Henn said each year Equal Exchange, another roaster out of Boston that supplies Fair Trade Coffeehouse, brings a member of a co-op in Latin America to see the shop and the customers drinking their coffee.
“It gives me purpose in what I’m doing,” Henn said.
Students cite a number of reasons why they come to the shop. Some choose Fair Trade Coffeehouse because of their efforts to aid in fair trade.
“The coffee house is a good place to study,” UW freshman Anna Koob said. “The fair trade coffee justifies my decision for coming to this coffeehouse.”
Koob also feels it is important to know about production of the products you are consuming.
“It’s important that the farmers are given a fair price, something that they can live off of,” Koob said.
Others, like UW senior Sarah Morgan and UW freshman Teagan Hayes, are unaware of the Fair Trade Coffeehouse’s efforts and are just there to enjoy themselves.
“We are just trying to go to all the places on State Street to eat, and we saw that Fair Trade Coffeehouse had sandwiches,” Morgan said.
Whether customers come for the purpose of supporting fair trade or just to enjoy a cup of coffee, Henn said that business this past two weeks has been good.
“We have been filled to capacity several times,” Henn said.
