(Photo by Audrey J, Fairtrade coffee @ FT Carnival in Melbourne, Australia, on World FT day, 5/14/05)

It’s official — We’re gonna have a Starbucks fair trade coffee tasting at USC on November 11 — An auspicious day, in my view, cuz 11′s my fave number.

I wrote back in September that Lore of USC’s Hospitality Services said we’d start getting plans for a tasting of Starbucks’ fair trade offerings together mid-October (Most of USC’s coffee is Starbucks’). So last week, I called Lore — who was still swamped with Doheny Tea House stuff and suggested pushing things back til November.

“Um, maybe I could help organize it?” I said. “I have some Starbucks contacts, and they said they’d be happy to arrange a tasting on campus…”

Which actually did the trick! I have to say our Hospitality Services has been super honest and helpful. When they say they’re happy to look into fair trade, they really are. And when they say they’re busy, they really are — Lore was only too happy to give me her Starbucks rep’s number and ask me to set things up.

So I called Lore’s contact John, who referred me to Jonathan, one of John’s underlings. We came up with some dates. I called Lore with them, and she got in touch with Carlos, the manager for Trojan Grounds, where we plan to hold the tasting. The 11th worked best for all.

Lore’s taking over from here — My only task now is to galvanize the Oxfam-USC kids to hopefully get a letter to the editor in the Daily Trojan, preferably from an undergrad, and to do what we can to publicize the event. I’ll also round up some kids to volunteer at the tasting table, though I’m guessing Starbucks will say they can handle it.

And according to Lore, the tasting’s simply to find out which blend of fair trade students prefer. “Oh, I thought it was to find out if students wanted fair trade,” I said. To which she replied, “Oh, no — there’s no question about that. Students want fair trade.”

Chris Martin‘s doin’ his job really, really well –

Filed in: fairtrade coffee usc oxfam

0 Comments