Back to da Roots, a new student group at the University of San Francisco, recently hosted an event called The Faces of Fair Trade to educate the USF community about fair trade practices and to demonstrate the vital connection between consumers and farmers. The group invited farmers from the Mirembe Kawomera cooperative in Uganda to talk about the fair trade system, and the positive impacts they have see in their own community as a direct result of fair trade practices. Because fair trade cuts out many of the middle men and puts profits back into the hands of farmers, who in turn invest the money back into their local community, the co-op has been able to fund the construction of several schools in the past few years. USF is currently negotiating with Thanksgiving Coffee, the company that sells the Mirembe Kawomera’s products, and students hope to see the co-op’s coffee on campus in the coming semesters.

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