A fair trade-off
Full-flavored Guatemalan coffee. Tie-dyed table linens. Handmade jewelry.
Those are a few of the items you might add to your holiday shopping list to purchase at North Central College's first alternative gifts market. Sponsored by Students in Free Enterprise, the market will be open from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday in Heininger Auditorium at Larrance Academic Center, 309 E. School St., Naperville.
The idea is to offer gifts made or grown in developing nations by people who have been paid "fair," livable wages for their work, said SIFE member Kelsey Staudacher, who has spearheaded the gift market effort.
"Every single product we're going to be featuring has been made by a small co-op," she said.
The SIFE students import the coffee, chocolate and woven items from Guatemala. Marketed under the brand "Conscious Bean," the coffee is purchased from the San Lucas Mission in Guatemala. Students grind the beans, which are roasted at Arbor Vitae Java & Juice in Naperville.
The coffee is sold at Arbor Vitae, Casey's Foods and the Rolland Center Boilerhouse Cafe on campus, and brewed by several local churches on Sundays, Staudacher said. Cups of the mild-flavored java will be sold at the market with refills given for free.
"It's a medium-roast coffee. It has a very full flavor," she said.
Other items from Guatemala include woven purses and wall hangings, Staudacher said.
The market also will offer tie-dyed tablecloth and napkin sets and greeting cards with handmade artwork the students have imported from Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa, Staudacher said.
Other items the students have purchased at wholesale prices from outside vendors such as Ten Thousand Villages, which works with more than 100 artisan groups in 30 countries to provide fair trade products.
Prices at the gift market will range from $5 for small items to $75 for some decorative home furnishings, Staudacher said.
"It's very competitively priced," she said.
Staudacher is particularly pleased to offer jewelry from BeadforLife, handmade from recycled and dyed paper. The African women who have made the beads have suffered war, disease and other hardships.
"I think those will be a very unique item and they come directly from Uganda," she said.
Staudacher, a junior who hopes to pursue a career in international development, visited Guatemala last year on a SIFE trip, and plans to go to Burkina Faso in December. She said when she meets people from developing nations, she is inspired by their passion to make better lives for themselves and their families.
"I'm interested in how women in these nations can learn skills and make their small businesses succeed," she said. "In Burkina Faso, I'm looking forward to seeing the ways these women are being empowered and the extent to which SIFE may be able to better meet their needs."
The alternative gift market offers area residents an opportunity to participate in that effort to create a better life for people in developing nations, she said.
"It will not only be a place to purchase goods," Staudacher said, "but a really fun shopping experience."
If you go
What:Alternative gifts market featuring fair trade items from developing nations
When:7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday
Where:North Central College's Heininger Auditorium at Larrance Academic Center, 309 E. School St., Naperville
Admission: Free
Info:(630) 637-5305