Walpole Unitarian Church
Social Action:
SINGING AND STANDING ON THE SIDE OF LOVE
Many members of our congregation are involved in Social Action projects and events to help support the ideals of peace and justice. Our children often join us in vigils, and they help with our efforts to battle hunger problems in our area.
Guests at your table
Who are the people from all over the world whose work has has contributed to your life, to the food on your family's table?
"Guest at Your Table" is an annual tradition in which congregation members learn about several people with whom the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is working. They are featured in our materials that are the foundation of each year's activities. This year, we are featuring peoples who have been displaced. These people are your “guests,” and we ask you to share your blessings with them to support our shared mission. GUEST AT THE TABLE >
Fair Trade Products
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We offer Equal Exchange Fair Trade Products for sale at our church. We encourage all to participate in this program. Virginia Carter is our Fair Trade coorinator and organizer. We keep our pantry at the church stocked with coffees and teas and chocolate and other miscellaneous products. If there is something you need that is not there, ask Virginia and she can order it for you. LEARN MORE >>>
So, what exactly does "Fair Trade" mean? Equal Exchange's mission is to builf long-term partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.
Their Story
Equal Exchange has created Big Change for over 25 years. It all started with an idea: what if food could be traded in a way that is honest and fair, a way that empowers both farmers and consumers? Our founders - Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal and Michael Rozyne - asked this question as they envisioned a trade model that values farmers and consumers. So they took a big risk and plunged full-force into changing a broken food system. In 1986, they started with fairly traded coffee from Nicaragua and didn't look back.
Their Model
At Equal Exchange we believe that we should expect no less from ourselves and each other than we demand of our farmer partners. For that reason we have organized ourselves as a democratic worker cooperative, now one of the largest in the country. A worker cooperative is an alternative for-profit structure based upon standard democratic principles. It is not designed to maximize profits, nor returns to investors, but rather to bring to the workplace many of the rights and responsibilities that we hold as citizens in our communities.
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The Manna Project
We proudly support hunger projects in our area, whether raising money to support our two local food pantries and lunch kitchens, or making meals for our winter shelter, we know these projects are among the most valuable service we can do on a local level. We have a jar at the church for "pocket change" and for every dollar we raise, we can purchase $10 worth of food for our local pantries. Thus, if we raise $500 dollars for the pantries, this is transformed into $5,000 of food to help support local families.
We embrace a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, celebrating and honoring faith traditions that offer an abundance of common ground. This is who we are!