In April 2008, Equal Exchange took a group of parents and teachers to visit our cacao farming partners, members of CONACADO co-operative, in the Dominican Republic. The trip consisted of four Equal Exchange worker-owners: Virginia Berman, Organizing Director; Gary Goodman, Advertising and Promotions Manager; Dary Goodrich, Chocolate Products Manager; and me, Kelsie Evans, Fundraising Program Coordinator. Also on the trip were five members from the New York State Union of Teachers (NYSUT) and two parents that organized an Equal Exchange Fair Trade fundraiser at their school.
As a way to stay connected to where our products come from and the people that grow the coffee, tea and chocolate we sell, Equal Exchange worker-owners regularly visit our farmer partners. Having recently been voted a worker-owner at Equal Exchange, I had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic and learn more about the origins of our delicious, organic chocolate. It’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day tasks of getting your job done, so visiting the Dominican Republic, seeing the impacts of Fair Trade first-hand, and just having the opportunity to meet the cacao farmers with whom we trade was a great reminder of the Fair Trade mission that fuels this daily work.
One thing that was different about this trip from other Equal Exchange delegations was the time spent visiting schools. After our first visit to a school called “El Mogote,” Victor Diaz, a cacao farmer and member of CONACADO who helped organize our visit, tried to express the importance of this visit. “In a place where education is so undervalued, where many children aren’t becoming cacao farmers, it means so much to have visitors from the United States who want to come to our schools and talk about the importance of cacao farming,” he said. At 52 years old, Victor is one of the youngest farmers in the co-operative; most of CONACADO's farmers are in their 60s and 70s and their children and grandchildren do not plan to follow in their footsteps.
Fortunately, there are some exceptions. We had three nights of staying in pairs with cacao farming families. While staying up late talking (if that’s what you can call my broken Spanish) to the members of my homestay family, I got a different generational perspective. The sixteen year old granddaughter of the farmer we were staying with plans to become an agronomist and return to the co-operative. “This land is so valuable and produces the best cacao in the world, we could never give it up,” she said. I doubt our visits to school classrooms will change many students’ minds about farming, but combined with paying premium prices and maintaining mutually beneficial trade relationships with Dominican cacao farmers, it might help future generations recognize the value in this work.
View the Dominican Republic photo slide show here:
Our Co-op 
In April 2008, Equal Exchange took a group of parents and teachers to visit our cacao farming partners, members of 
One thing that was different about this trip from other Equal Exchange delegations was the time spent visiting schools. After our first visit to a school called “El Mogote,” Victor Diaz, a cacao farmer and member of CONACADO who helped organize our visit, tried to express the importance of this visit. “In a place where education is so undervalued, where many children aren’t becoming cacao farmers, it means so much to have visitors from the United States who want to come to our schools and talk about the importance of cacao farming,” he said. At 52 years old, Victor is one of the youngest farmers in the co-operative; most of CONACADO's farmers are in their 60s and 70s and their children and grandchildren do not plan to follow in their footsteps.
