Fair Trade

On Friday April 24th to celebrate Global Youth Service Day under the motto “Think Global. Act Local,” WKU's Chapter of Americans for Informed Democracy, WKU AID, partnered with WKU's Golden Key International Honour Society to organize a Fair Trade Scavenger Hunt.

Teams of student volunteers had 5 hours to go all across Bowling Green, KY and collect data on what fair trade products were available at different locations.

Fair Trade is a certificate, which guarantees farmers in the developing world a fair price for their goods and allows them to invest in education and health care. Fair trade also has high environmental standards and assures that no child labor was used in the farming of the products.

The winning team, Team Awesome, was announced at the start of the WKU Sustainability Conference that evening and awarded a prize package of fair trade goodies.

Below we have posted the data collected from the Scavenger Hunt to serve as an online resource for globally conscious consumers in the Bowling Green community.

We would like to keep this database as up-to-date as possible so if you happen to find any mistakes in our listings or if you know of any other fair trade products available in the Bowling Green area please let us know by contacting us at aid.wku@gmail.com and we will be sure to get that information uploaded as soon as possible.


Fair Trade at WKU

Java City in Downing University Center: has wide variety of Fair Trade blends including the Utopian, Vanilla Bean, Decaf Espresso, French Roast, Café del Corazon and Guatemala Oriflama Fair Trade blends as well as Fair Trade Chai Tea, you can also purchase Ethos Water at this location which may not be fair trade but some of the profits do go towards making clean water available to developing countries which is something AID supports and by the way the idea to sell Ethos Water actually came from a meeting between WKU AID activists and WKU Aramark officials last year

Java City in Cravens Library: More Fair Trade coffee blends available here including the Utopian, Vanilla Bean, Decaf Espresso, French Roast, Café del Corazon and Guatemala Oriflama Fair Trade blends as well as Fair Trade Chai Tea and Ethos Water

Garrett Food Court: Some Java City Fair Trade Blends including the Utopia Blend are available here near the refreshments

Einstein Bagels at MMTH on campus: ask for their Global Village Fair Trade Blend, you can also purchase some Fair Trade organic tea here

Bates Shop: Here you can purchase Steaz Fair Trade organic sparkling green tea


Fair Trade in Bowling Green, Kentucky

Kroger (various locations) Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade Vanilla Ice Cream, a variety of Millstone Fair Trade coffee blends including their Breakfast ground Blend and Mountain Moonlight, Celestial Seasons’ Carmel Mocha, Vanilla Hazlenut, Morning Thunder and French Roastaroma organic fair trade coffee blends, Christopher Bean’s Fair Trade organic House blend, Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night and Chamomile Organic Fair Trade Teas, Honest Tea’s peach and pomegranate fair trade organic teas, Bigelow’s organic Ceylon Fair Trade black tea, and Wholesome Sweetners organic Raw Honey

Walgreens: (various locations) Look for Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch with Fair Trade certified coffee ingredients sourced from fair trade cooperatives in Mexico

Starbucks (various locations) Ask for their Fair Trade Café Estima Blend

Sam’s Club: Bowling Green’s Sam’s Club is proud to be one of only a handful in the nation to sell Fair Trade Bananas, also look for Member’s Mark Coffee, Neu Direction Fair Trade Red Wine from Argentina, Peterson Farms Dried Triple Cherry and Cherry Berry Blends both sweetened with Fair Trade Sugar

Target: Look for Wandering Graper Fair Trade wines and Archer Farms and Seattles Best Fair Trade Coffee varieties

Greener Groundz: An amazing local activist hangout and home to some of Bowling Green’s greatest music. This local hot spot delivers a variety of locally roasted Fair Trade coffee blends which is a double plus for those concerned with local foods and fair trade

Spencers Coffee: a variety of fair trade coffee sourced from Tadesse’s cooperative in Ethiopia, as featured in the award winning documentary film Black Gold. Read a blog post from Justin, Spencers’ owner, about last year’s screening of Black Gold and the connections between the farmers in the film and the cups served at the local café shop HERE

Walmart (two locations) look for Starbuck’s Café Estima Blend and other Fair Trade Starbuck’s Blends from various countries including Peru, Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Macadamia ice cream with fair trade certified cocoa and vanilla ingredients, Sam’s Choice Fair Trade Certified Coffee sourced from countries including Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil, and Peterson Farms Chocolate Covered Dried Cherries