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Capital City Grange Meeting–4:30 to 5:00 PM, and “Equal Exchange” presentation 5:00 to 6:00
October 5, 2019 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
This month’s meeting represents the first of the shorter “executive” meetings for the Grange, followed by a program for a full hour. We have set up this schedule to allow more time for exploring the topics presented, with time for questions and discussion. See below for more info about this month’s program!
This Grange meeting will be simplified, without the usual set-up of Grange paraphernalia, and without taking time for the full order of the meeting we follow in odd-numbered months. Officers will consider information about the running of the Grange–e.g. any issues with the Grange Hall, or with rentals that need immediate decisions, for example. Larger policy discussions will be left for the full meetings.
You DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO PARTICIPATE and anyone who cares about the Hall is invited to attend! All of these events are sponsored by Capital City Grange as part of our community service mission, and are free to all–including the Community Potluck which will follow.
You DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO PARTICIPATE and anyone who cares about the Hall is invited to attend! All of these events are sponsored by Capital City Grange as part of our community service mission, and are free to all–including the Community Potluck which will follow.
This month’s presentation: Equal Exchange: Building a Better Food System
Description: In the wider food system corporations control everything from seeds, to supply and prices. Join Danielle Robidoux from Equal Exchange in building a vibrant community that challenges the status quo, and business as usual. There will be a short presentation on our organizing work, the steps that have led us here, and how you can get involved in imagining a better food system. Our event will focus on discussion and how your participation as an individual is integral to this work in building a successful alternative trade organization for years to come.Bio: Danielle Robidoux has been an organizer at Equal Exchange for the past 3 years. A long-time food activist with a Masters in International Relations and Economic Development at Umass Boston. Danielle manages a community of 4,000 food activists across the US as part of Equal Exchange’s network. She is co-host of the Equal Exchange podcast The Stories Behind Our Food. Danielle has been one of the main organizers of Equal Exchange’s yearly Summits bringing together producer partners internationally, citizen-consumers, and worker-owners of Equal Exchange to sit around one table and grapple with issues plaguing our food system.
Equal Exchange: This organization was founded 30 years ago, to make “a closer connection between people and the farmers we all rely on”. The 3 founders wanted to provide “fairness to farmers” by removing many of the middlemen, providing fair, direct payment to the people who produce the food, rather than profits to those who just pass it on.
They work with democratically run farmer co-ops, purchasing coffee beans, cocoa and tea directly. Equal Exchange, a cooperatively run, worker owned business itself, processes, packages and distributes the fairly-traded products to food co-0ps and other customers in the United States.
Equal Exchange U.S. partners with Equal Exhange U.K., La Siembre (Canada), and Oke USA, which imports fair-trade bananas.
For more information about all of these organizations, visit equalexchange.coop.
Come to the presentation by Danielle Robidoux to ask questions and learn more!
