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Written by Virginia Berman
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 In mid-July we celebrated our 20th anniversary. Here to commemorate the occasion
with us were 25 representatives from coffee, tea, cocoa, and sugar small scale
farmer cooperatives from 19 different countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. They were joined by hundreds of Fair Trade leaders, Interfaith Program
partners, store and café managers, investors, and Equal Exchange worker-owners who came to participate in the two day event. "It was an amazing moment for us,"
said Rink Dickinson, co-founder and president of Equal Exchange. "Having so many partners and supporters together at the same time gave everyone a sense of how
much our movement has grown over the past two decades."
On Friday, during the first day of the celebration, we held a Stakeholder Summit, a one-day conference, in which we addressed some difficult questions including: "How do we build small-scale farmer solidarity?" and, "As participants in the Fair Trade movement, how do we measure success?" Leaders from farmer co-ops shared their personal and organizational experiences with the other participants in order to better get at the "heart" of Fair Trade. Through collective, firsthand, and sometimes opposing viewpoints, we heard a range of stories that are creating a foundation of information and experience that will help us forge paths into the future.
After all of the hard work of the Summit, we were energized and ready for Saturday’s party. On that day, we held an open house event with tours of our coffee roaster; workshops on coffee quality, chocolate, and tea, presentations by farmer co-op leaders; and forums for bringing the principles of Fair Trade to family farmers here in the U.S. We dipped strawberries into a flowing chocolate fountain, drank massive amounts of coffee, ate sumptuous food, and toasted with locally made wine and beer. In the evening we listened as Equal Exchange partners and movement leaders reflected on the past twenty years; and finally we got down and danced to the music by Entrain, Marta Gomez, and the Grass Gypsies.
See photo gallery and notes from our 20th Anniversary.
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Our Co-op 
