Dining Services to serve Fair Trade coffee
By Dawn Saur | November 7, 2003University Dining Services soon plans to serve coffee certified by Fair Trade in its dining halls, largely because of a student-based effort. Fair Trade Coffee is an organization committed to protecting coffee farmers from harsh working conditions by maintaining a minimum wage of $1.26 per pound of coffee and buying directly from the farmers instead of brokering through various middlemen. University students Chris Antoun and Mike Figura began an organization known as Students Promoting Fair Trade in an effort to increase its awareness among the campus community. They worked closely with Dining Services Associate Director Eddie Whedbee to switch the coffee provider of University dining halls to Pura Vida, which exclusively offers Fair Trade-certified coffee. "The drive to do this was theirs," Dining Services Director Brent Beringer said. Antoun and Figura could not be reached for comment yesterday. University Politics Prof.
