Amy Harmsen’s Fall, 2019 Business Practicum students made a generous impact on their local and global communities, while learning all the ins and outs of creating and managing a small business! 10 students in Amy’s fall class partnered with our local Just Fare Market and created their own Fair Trade Pop Up Shop with beautiful Mayan Hands friendship bracelets, mini chocolates from Equal Exchange, and hot cocoa and milk chocolate bars from Divine Chocolate.

Students sold Fair Trade products throughout the semester and were very proud to use their profits to give donations of $179.07 each to the FDL County Sheriff’s Shop with a Cop program and the FDL Humane Society. Sales of the Fair Trade products also benefited farmers and artisans in Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Ghana! 3 students, Heather Fousek, Taran Smith and Valerie Stafford, also earned full scholarships to attend the National Fair Trade Colleges Conference in Pasadena, CA in March. Congratulations!

Moraine Park Technical College was named the first Fair Trade technical college in the U.S in May 2015! Fair trade supports farmers and artisans in developing countries. These producers lack economic opportunity and often face steep hurdles in finding markets and customers for their goods. Fair Trade is about making a tremendous impact on artisan and farmer communities while offering great products to the public all around the world.