At the Moscow Food Co-op, we are celebrating Fair Trade products and the work that Fair Trade organizations and cooperatives are doing around the world to improve the lives of the people who grow the foods and beverages we love so much.

The article below featuring the Potong Tea Garden will give you an in-depth understanding of some of the issues involved with tea production, and how Fair Trade is helping. We hope you’ll be inspired to look around while you are shopping at the Co-op, notice the Fair Trade products we carry, and choose them, knowing that you are making a difference.

During the month of October, for each Equal Exchange product sold through food co-ops, Equal Exchange will donate 25 cents (up to $15,000) to the Potong community for the planting of 30,000 new tea bushes.

Get your cameras out and consider posting photos to our Facebook page to showoff your lunch packing style and prowess.  Of course there will be prizes for “most local lunch” “most waste free lunch” “most creative lunch” and “most kid friendly lunch” and possibly a surprise category.  You can enter as many photos as you like, recipes get you even more points.  Then look for customer encouraged participation voting towards the end of September.

 I myself, just got home from stocking up with my own lunch packing staples from the Co-op as the lunch packing vacation is over and it’s time to dust off our Goodbyn’s (we have three of these bento style lunch boxes and love how easy they are to use).  My husband would list his lunch packing staples as being: dates, cashews, almonds, cheese, salami, crackers, carrots and fruit whereas my kids would say: tortillas, nut butters, cream cheese, jam, Ricemellow cream, cheese, crackers, carrots, Annie’s Cowgirl Ranch, nuts, dried fruit and homemade yogurt.

Beginning this month, the Co-op will host a series of demonstrations and samplings, focusing on packing appealing, creative and time-saving lunches.   We will repeat last January’s sushi and spring roll demos, along with lots of other fun bento-style dishes, wraps, and edible decor.

My own kids love wraps and so we have developed a lot of variety in what we can roll into a tortilla -- along with lunch smoothies, dips, make your own “Lunchables” and more.  If you don’t already have a great lunch container system then our mercantile department will be well stocked with some recognizable favorites along with some brand new products.

Last fall we administered a member/shopper satisfaction survey commissioned by the National Cooperative Grocers Association. Using this professionally developed survey, provided to us for free (they even reimbursed us for the cookies we gave out to entice you to take the survey!), saved us thousands of dollars in developing something on our own, and also allows us to compare our results with those of all the other co-ops around the country who used the same survey.

Every once in a while something that we do turns out way better than we ever expected. The Bag It! Campaign is one of those things!

Midway through April, the Co-op management team unanimously voted not to bring back disposable plastic bags to the checkout stands. Ever!!

Bye bye plastic bags!

Yes, parties are great opportunities to get all that glass, plastic and aluminum to the Recycling Center…not the dump. How, you say? There’s so much of it? Here’s what has worked for me:

1. Find a set of big containers that can get yucky (I stack topless plastic totes outside).
2. Make small but clear signs. Put trash last.
3. Set recycle station up before the eating begins (learned by experience).
4. Have a game plan for getting all the stuff to the Recycling Center.
5. Double bagging with black garbage sacks helps.
6. Roof racks and bungee cords or truck beds work and can be less messy.
7. A compost bucket (sign on lid) can be added when appropriate.
8. A paper bin can also be added and burned in bonfire or later.
9. And finally, I recommend one container for plastic ware and cups to wash for re-use.

Happy recycling.