Equal Exchange - Customer Stories

Carol Smith, First Presbyterian in Fond du Lac, WI

INTERFAITH JOURNEY: TWO CHURCHES – TWO CARTS – TWO MEN OF ACTION
By Carol Smith and Carol Braun

Holy Family Catholic Community and First Presbyterian Church in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin have converged on a path of collaboration for justice for disadvantaged coffee farmers. Supporting that effort have been social justice activists and two men who made it possible to have "carts" for the journey.

In 2004 when the Peace and Social Justice Taskforce at First Presbyterian began selling Equal Exchange coffee through the Presbyterian Coffee Project, they longed for a cart on which to store and sell coffee; a cart like might be used by a street vendor in a large city. One of the taskforce members, Oscar Benson envisioned a cart with a canopy saying "Coffee A la Cart." The taskforce did not have the money to buy a commercial cart so began looking for a way to have one built. Finding wheels seemed a roadblock. Oscar made it his mission to work on getting a cart. He found a produce cart in the local Pick and Save Store and asked that if the cart were ever discarded that the store consider donating it to our fair trade mission. Oscar kept is eye on the cart on every trip to the store and when plans were made for remodeling the store he stepped up his vigilance in reminding the manager that he'd like to have the cart.

Finally the day came in August of 2007 that the store was ready to give up the cart. Oscar enlisted the help of his son to make the trip from the store to the church – which in the intervening year had be come the site of an ecumenical Fair Trade shop called the Just Fare Market. The cart is large and heavy and took ingenuity to take it apart enough to get it in the door of the shop. Today if serves as a wonderful centerpiece for display of fair trade foods and handcrafts.

Meanwhile meetings between people interested in fair trade at First Presbyterian and Holy Family led to a decision to combine efforts and work together in ordering coffee and supporting fair trade through the Just Fare Market. Holy Family was looking forward to completion of a new church with a large narthex with ample room for selling coffee after masses. They too thought having a cart for selling coffee was a great idea.

One of the lead Fair Trade supporters, Carol Braun, put a plea out to the congregation for someone to build a cart. A skilled craftsperson who happens to be an uncle to Carol took up the challenge. The result is perfect fit for the coffee and other fair trade food products. It is a superb job of woodworking. Most amazing is that the wheels were fashioned by hand. What follows is a description of the building of the cart written by the craftsman, Gene Leonard.

Building Sales Cart for Fair Trade Items
By Gene Leonard

Carol Braun asked for someone to make a cart for selling Fair Trade items at the new Holy Family Church. She included a website with carts so as to give an idea of what type of cart she had in mind. After looking at this site I checked out different sites that had wheels to sell but found them way too expensive. I decided I would commit to this project and I would also make the wheels.

I decided I would make it out of oak. I had gotten the wood from my brother Alex, when he cut some trees down. I helped him cut the logs into boards and clean up. I started by making a sample wheel hub on my lathe. When the sample looked right and my design advisor (my wife Mary) approved it, I turned out the two hubs using oak wood.

Next, I cut five arcs to make a 27" diameter outside rim and 24" inside rim for each wheel. I then glued the arcs together to form the two wheels. I sawed, tapered, and rounded 10 spokes for each wheel. I installed the spokes to the hubs and the rims with dowels and screws. I then routed the outside of the wheels to fit a 27" bicycle tire. I had cut most of the sidewall of the tires away. I then glued and nailed the tires to the rims to complete making the wheels.

Now I was ready to start working on the body. I planed and sawed the boards for the mainframe, legs, and canopy supports. I then glued and screwed the main frame together and attached the legs and the support for the wheels. Next I made the canopy supports and installed them. Then it was on to making the shelves from oak plywood and cutting strips for trim on the shelve edges. Installing brackets for the wall shelves completed the cart.

We delivered the cart to Holy Family after a somewhat difficult job of getting the cart out of our basement.

Thanks to my wife for sewing the canopy and for the staining and sealing of the cart. In all it took about 70 hours, 40 for the wheels and 30 for the rest. I enjoyed working on this cart.