Judson U. opening fair-trade shop to fund student mission trips

Judson University is debuting a student concept for a fair-trade store that would help students fund service-learning trips here and abroad and support the university's global partners.

The Just World Goods store opens Friday, Nov. 20 at the university's Elgin campus, 1151 N. State St. A ribbon cutting is set for 10 a.m. in Lindner Tower's first-floor lobby near the Riverside Café. The store will sell a variety of items, including coffee, tea, chocolate, jewelry, shirts, ornaments and book bags from Haiti, India and Latin America. Prices range from $5 to $40.

“Some of the products we are purchasing from wholesale (fair-trade) companies,” said Judson junior Briana Williams, 20, of Plainfield, a Christian ministries major who developed the concept last year as part of a class assignment.

Williams pitched her store idea at Judson's inaugural “Shark Tank” entrepreneurial competition in April and received a private donation to help get it started. Though she didn't win the competition, she earned the university's backing for the store — a first of its kind on campus.

“We have had the idea of a fair-trade store on campus for many years but lacked the time devoted to creating it,” said Lisa Jarot, Judson assistant vice president for student life. “When I met Briana, saw her leadership potential and vision for the store, I knew we had a perfect opportunity to see this idea take shape. This is exciting not only for Judson, but also for our Global Outreach partners around the world.”

The Apparent Project, a fair-trade nonprofit group in Haiti, is sending fundraising boxes of ornaments and jewelry, such as bracelets and necklaces, for the store. Once the goods are sold, a portion of the proceeds will be sent back to the group, which enables poor Haitian families by providing a marketplace for their crafts.

“It's really cool stuff,” Williams said.

Another group from India, Raj Ministries, also is sending products to the Judson store to help fund its mission helping the poor in Northern India and Nepal. Among the items are backpacks, tea coasters, pencil cases and purses made by women who have been rescued from sex trafficking and abusive homes.

Scarves from some Latin American countries also will be available at the store, Williams said.

Proceeds not only will benefit these charitable efforts abroad, but also provide scholarships for Judson Global Outreach students who cannot afford to go on yearly service-learning mission trips.

Judson's Global Outreach program this year will be sending teams of 10 to 15 students on mission trips to Belize, the Bahamas, Peru, Mississippi, and East Saint Louis, said Williams, one of the Global Outreach leaders who is headed to the Bahamas.

Once there, students engage in service-learning activities, including helping at schools with after-school programs and building houses.

Williams said she wanted to see Judson's mission trips “become more sustainable.”

“We decided to go with the fair-trade store model to help fundraise for our mission trips because it allowed us to be able to also help our global partners year round and not just once a week when we travel over,” Williams said. “It was more so mainly because we have a lot of international students who don't have access getting support letters. It's hard for them to raise money within the U.S.”

Williams said the store promotes values of mission lifestyle, financial sustainability, global engagement, community outreach, educational opportunities, and equality.

“We're using these two weeks before the semester ends as a pilot,” Williams said. “If it goes really well, we're going to keep it open for next semester and gauge how many scholarships we can do.”

The Just World Goods store will be open to the public 3 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, when classes are in session. It will be closed during school breaks.

Eventually, Williams would like to see the idea spread to other university campuses.

“I can definitely see myself actually doing this for a living, where I travel and get goods from other places and sell it here so that people realize the importance of fair trade and helping out those around the world,” Williams said.