Healdsburg offically declared the first Fair Trade Town in Sonoma County!

The Fair Trade Healdsburg campaign was established in April, 2011 by a group of 10 dedicated volunteers.  We were encouraged to gain recognition for our small town that had already shown such strong support for Fair Trade.  In just five short months we accomplished all five of our goals and with unanimous support from our City Council, Healdsburg was officially declared the first Fair Trade Town in Sonoma County on Sept 8, 2011.

We currently have 12 businesses that carry at least two certified Fair Trade products, including two grocery stores, two cafés, a clothing store, toy store, salon, book store and 3 gift shops including one fully committed to Fair Trade.

Upcoming Events

·         Several  Steering Committee members attending the Global Forum on Human Trafficking on Oct 21-22, 2011 in Sunnyvale, CA

·         Presentation to the Healdsburg Rotary Club on Oct 19, 2011

·         Presentation to the Healdsburg High School Progressive Club on Dec 15, 2011

·         Currently working on new Fair Trade Healdsburg brochure to be available as outreach in every participating business as well as the Chamber of Commerce.

·         Currently working on new website.

·         Continued retail and business support to increase availability of certified Fair Trade products.

http://www.fairtradetownsusa.org/towns/ca/healdsburg/

Healdsburg OK'd as First Sonoma County 'Fair Trade Town'

Healdsburg leaders said "yea" five times to give unanimous approval Tuesday night to a resolution designating the city as a "Fair Trade Town."
"I believe in this program," said City Councilman Steve Babb. "It's ideal for Healdsburg.
"As a city, we believe in fairness for the people around us and within us," he added. "This seems to fit."
Tuesday's vote means Healdsburg will become the first Fair Trade Town in Sonoma County. It indicates the city supports the concept of Fair Trade, which hinges on favoring products that are made and shipped from foreign companies where there are healthy working conditions and fair labor practices.
Read full article

Healdsburg City Council unanimously approved our resolution!

Healdsburg on Tuesday took steps toward becoming the first “Fair Trade Town” in Sonoma County, part of a movement to encourage fair labor practices and healthy working conditions in the production of imported food and goods.

The City Council unanimously approved a resolution expressing support for fair trade practices and a local committee's initiatives to make Healdsburg a “Fair Trade Town USA.”

“I believe in this program — its concept and idea,” said Councilman Steve Babb. He said it is compatible with local efforts to provide food, medical services and housing for low-income people.

(click on link below to read full article)
Healdsburg seeks 'fair trade town' status!

Fair Trade Healdsburg in the Press Democrat!

Healdsburg could become the first “Fair Trade Town” in Sonoma County, part of an effort to promote fair labor practices and decent work environments in the production of imported food and goods.

Healdsburg City Council members this week expressed unanimous support for a resolution in support of the designation, which is intended to promote a fair wage and safe and healthy working conditions.

Click link below to read full article:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110817/ARTICLES/110819550?p=1&tc=pg

Resolution well recieved but delayed!

Fair Trade Healdsburg presented our initiative to City Hall last evening at 6:00pm with hope that the City of Healdsburg would pass resolution expressing support for Fair Trade practices.  This being the final step towards becoming the next recognized Fair Trade Town in the U.S. 

Steve Martin, Legislative Outreach Coordinator for Fair Trade Healdsburg, supported by several key Steering Committee Members, delivered an excellent presentation to the Healdsburg City Council, City Manager Marjie Pettus and Mayor Tom Chambers.

We were very well received with commitments of support from four City Council members as well as Mayor Tom Chambers and City Manager Marjie Pettus.

We are rescheduled for September 6th to allow time for the City Council to further discuss and we anticipate that the resolution will pass with ease.

This is great news for Fair Trade Healdsburg!

Upcoming City Council Meeting!

Tonight is the night! Fair Trade Healdsburg will present to City Council our grassroots campaign to raise awareness of Fair Trade and build demand for Fair Trade practices and products in Healdsburg. If all goes well, City Council will adopt resolution expressing support for fair trade practices and the Healdsburg Fair Trade Committee’s initiative to recognize Healdsburg as the next Fair Trade Town in the U.S.!

Goal Three "Engage your Town" Accomplished!

One of our goals was to "Engage our Town".  We have already listed on our blog and flyer where in Healdsburg folks can find Fair Trade products, now we want to encourage people to buy them!  Because of community ourtreach we now have several local organizations committed to serving Fair Trade beverages at monthly meetings and as part of their daily routine.  With a population of 10,000 people we had a goal of at least two organizations and we now have several.  We look forward to including more and more!

Now only one more goal to go, Passing a Fair Trade Resolution at City Hall!

We achieved our fourth goal!

Goal four for Fair Trade Healdsburg was to "get some love from the media".  Being a Fair Trade Town isn't just about helping our community to switch to products which better reflect our values, but also about reaching out to the general public.  We did this through generating media coverage.  Our many volunteers are doing a great job and we want to make sure someone hears about it! 

We were very fortunate to have had Ann Carranza, writer, blogger and photographer for Healdsburg Patch, attend one of our Steering Committee Meetings.  She thankfully gave us some supportive media attention:  .http://healdsburg.patch.com/articles/local-group-seeks-to-make-healdsburg-a-fair-trade-town#comments

We also had a wonderful article written by Crissi from Shop SoCo about our local Fair Trade Shop, One World Fair Trade: http://www.shopsoco.com/2011/03/one-world-fair-trade/

We also owe much thanks to Chris Love, longtime Healdsburg resident who believes we all need to make a difference in our world, for adding our movement to her "Community Corner" section of The Healdsburg Tribune: http://www.sonomawest.com/articles/2011/07/21/the_healdsburg_tribune/opinion/columns/doc4e28bede65dae908101372.txt

7/25/11 Minutes

·          3 goals have been met!

·         City council meeting scheduled for Monday aug 15^th 6pm at City Hall

·         Annette met with Marjie Pettis City manager who sees no opposition, resolution page to be done and ready for the meeting.  Once resolution is passed it is law for members of the city hall, they will be committed to buying ft coffee, sugar etc to take the place of whatever products they used before.  This also includes city programs like the after school programs, which would be a great place to do a  ft presentation to the local kids.

·         She would like to get the rotary involved with certifying at the artisan level

·         Would it be a good idea to have the Paul Rice video from Fair Trade USA to play at meeting?

·         Progress for getting businesses and organizations to switch to serving ft coffee at their meetings/establishments:

                Dry Creek Kitchen uses local coffee, switching not an option

                Bellezza serves bean affair coffee, not sure if what they serve if ft but look into

                Relish already uses and always serves coffee at their meetings

                Copperfields is willing to switch over once they are capable, it is a goal

                John Holt let us know that the rotary meets at Costeaux  who provides whatever    refreshments he knows the owner well and would like to talk to him about considering serving ft coffee..

                Waiting on responses from a couple more organizations

·         Gretchen is headed to the first Fair Trade Towns national conference in Philadelphia in September to represent Fair Trade Healdsburg!  Any questions or specific information you would like from fellow towns or fair trade towns experts please get them to Gretchen!

·         Check out the blurb for Fair Trade Healdsburg in the tribune under Chris Loves community corner

·         No answer from the questions that were sent out to established fair trade towns as of yet.  Except Taos, NM  !  I got a response from them during the meeting!  A lot of the steps they took are the same was what we’re doing currently.  Although they did mention getting a small budget allocation to support the ft community once it was appointed by the mayor, sounds worth looking into as well as fundraisers.

·         Goals after resolutions is passed is to:

                 Regularly present information and videos to the public to educate, at the raven or the high school “black box” theater/presentation room.

                Plan a day to feature businesses that carry ft products, serving coffee/chocolate and highlight them, during October (fair trade month)

·         Before City council meeting shall we all meet to prepare and unite J , 5pm?

·         Goals to complete before next steering committee meeting, contact the Raven, Black Box and Farmers Market.

·         Next meeting TBD

We received our "Retail Outreach" badge!

We completed our second goal and have received our "Retail Outreach" badge!  The Fair Trade Towns USA criteria is to demonstrate that a range of products are available at local stores, cafes and restaurants.  We now have nine businesses in Healdsburg, that carry "certified" Fair Trade products include: The Bean Affair, Big John's Market, Cafe' Gratitude, Copperfields Books, Earth Buddha, One World Fair Trade, Safeway, Shelton's Natural Foods Market and Toy B Ville, with more to come. (see our "Where to find Fair Trade products in Healdsburg" link). 

Next Meeting!

Will be at El Sombrero.  6 pm Monday the 25th.  We are really making progress! 

Reach out to Retailers!

The second step towards achieving the Fair Trade Towns USA criteria is to demonstrate that a range of products are available at local stores, cafes and restaurants.  We now have nine businesses in Healdsburg, including retail stores, cafe's and grocery stores that carry "certified" Fair Trade products (see our "Where to find Fair Trade products in Healdsburg" link).  We have just submitted for approval our info to receive our "Retail Outreach" badge!

Some love from Healdsburg Patch!

Local Group Seeks to Make Healdsburg a Fair Trade Town!

Fair Trade Healdsburg Minutes 6/27/11

-Goal 2 is just about completed.  A number of merchant surveys were completed and we now have a list compiled of all the stores that carry FT products to plug into google maps.  Once Chamber is involved this list can be given to them to post on their site if possible.

-Next step is to reach out to churches and community organizations, educate, gain support and get them to switch over to using/serving FT products.  Steve and Krystalynn have already connected with some and are coming up with a brochure/handout for easier more concise viewing.  Kim will contact about serving coffee (or tea/hot cocoa/ choc)  at churches with info table for members .

- Everyone to come up with list of questions for other established FT towns. Email to Kim who will compile and split up cities so we can contact and gather useful info (like how they gained community support, chamber support, how they marketed, etc)

-Steve viewed webinar on engaging churches, great notes. Webinar available online to view on fair trade USA website.

-Steve also reviewed meeting with Mayor Tom Chambers.  Packet was reviewed, interest expressed, no problems foreseen.  Next step is to get on the city council meetings agenda.

-Thanks to Herb Lieberman for attending and sharing his thoughts and expertise.

-Thanks to Ann Carranza from The Healdsburg Patch. She will be posting info about Fair Trade Healdsburg on the online community new site.  Also will do follow ups.  Healdsburg.patch.com

-Perhaps as another way to reach out to businesses and promote the ones carrying Ft products we should have a day where we set up a table with Ft info and serve chocolate.  Businesses need to be contacted about that. 

Next meeting 2 weeks?  We did not discuss.  I’ll keep everyone posted!  J

Let's make Healdsburg the next Fair Trade Town!

The Bay Area is at the forefront of the Fair Trade Towns movement, as San Francisco is a Fair Trade City and Berkeley has recently passed a city resolution to become a Fair Trade Town. Congratulations, Berkeley!  Oakland and Calistoga are also in the process of  becoming a Fair Trade Town.  Let's make Healdsburg the next Fair Trade Town!

Tell your Friends and Family: Fair Trade is Improving Lives!

Spread the word that Fair Trade improves lives worldwide! Fair Trade USA has a brand new micro-documentary explaining Fair Trade in less than 2 minutes.
Click link below for video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvLHDxv4B4&feature=player_embedded

Appointment with the Mayor!

Right on Steve for getting an appointment with our Mayor next Tuesday!  Moving forward.

6/13/11 Fair Trade Healdsburg Minutes

Welcome members of The Progressive Club and Michelle, also thanks to Michelle for opening up and allowing us to meet at her lovely establishment!

Reviewing:

Business canvass overview-

*Gretchen and Kim started the first step in phase 2, canvassing the town to handout the retail outreach letter and retail survey.  Reactions varied from excitement and interest to hesitancy.

Checking back in to touch base and hopefully pick up completed surveys.  Gretchen already received 1 back!  J

The goal in this phase for now is to gain support from businesses.  In the future after getting them to appreciate the good in being designated a fair trade town we move on to encouraging/requesting businesses to bring on, say, 1 more fair trade product.

*A wonderful response to Becky’s presentation at Kaiser, proposal to be given to Kaiser corporate with the goal of changing over to using and serving fair trade coffee.

Goals and new discussions:

*One World is to bring on Stop Human Trafficking products.

*Steve and Krystalynn have distributed community organization letters to ministers in the area and will be following up in the next couple weeks.

*Next canvass to be scheduled in groups with whoever would like to take part, as many members of the community that take part in this as possible would be great.  We could make more of an impact on business owners/managers.

“What’s in it for the business?”

                Free advertising on our blog with link to their sites as well as advertising at any events we do.

                New customers, bringing in the business of people that are specifically looking for fair trade       items

                Being designated a fair trade town will be another reason Healdsburg can list to make it a             destination point

*We need a media blurb, dvd, brochure to pass out to any interested. 

*We will be reaching out to Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. Steve will look into setting up a meeting with Rotary and Krystalynn can present, attend to support!

*We are also looking into Fair Trade Healdsburg T-shirts. 

*Next meeting to be on the 27^th, same time and place.

More Than 50,000 Attendees for World Fair Trade Day!

Over 300 World Fair Trade Day events took place in the US & Canada from May 1-15. North America has already involved over 50,000 people - and we're still counting! One World Fair Trade, in Healdsburg, served 140 cups of Fair Trade coffee that week and donated $400 to Ganesh Himal to help build a new workshop for Fair Trade artisans in Nepal!

We reached our first goal!

Our first step towards achieving the Fair Trade Towns USA criteria was to establish a steering committee that meets regularly.  Our small group of seven members consists of a diverse cross section of our local Fair Trade community.   We will break out into subcommittees or roles for each of our groups members according to their greatest interests and strengths.  We had a goal of at least five members, one for each of the criteria, and in doing so we have received our "Build Your Team" badge and we will move to our next step!

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 17. 2011 @ Cafe Gratitude, 6:00 p.m.
Thank you for your cooperation, care and concern during this challenging week.

Steering Committe Meeting

Tuesday, May 10th

Steering Committee Meeting

First Official Meeting to name steering committee members and to officially complete Step 1 of the toolkit.

Meeting place: Cafe Gratitude @ 6:15pm.