2024 Equal Exchange Summit
June 21, 2024 at Wheaton College in Norton, MA
Let’s reconnect as a community! The annual Equal Exchange Summit is a powerful gathering that brings together all stakeholders in our alternative trade network. For nearly four decades, we’ve been working together to build an alternative trade model that brings coffee, chocolate, tea, bananas, and other fairly traded goods from democratically organized small farmer co-ops in the global south to citizen-consumers in the north through Equal Exchange’s worker-owned cooperative.
Join us for a fun and informative gathering of all parts of our supply chain as we continue to advance our solidarity network and mission in an ever-consolidating food system that so badly needs alternatives like ours.
To register fill out the form below
or email organizing@equalexchange.coop
Wheaton College, 26 E. Main Street, Norton, MA 02766
Campus Map | Parking: Lot #4
2024 Schedule of Events
Thursday, June 20 (optional)
5:00pm-9:00pm Dorm Check-in, Pine Hall
*Please let us know if you will be arriving after 9pm at organizing@equalexhange.coop
5:00pm-6:00pm Governance Session, Chase Small
6:00pm-7:00pm Welcome Dinner & Drinks, Chase Dining Hall
Drinks until 9:30pm
Friday, June 21
7:00am-9:00am Dorm Check-in, Pine Hall
7:30am-8:45am Breakfast, Chase Dining Hall
9:00am-9:30am Welcome, Chase Dining Hall
9:30am-10:45am Keynote Address - Same Foundation, New Beliefs: Two Co-Founders Reflect on Life After Equal Exchange, presented by Jonathan Rosenthal & Michael Rozyne, Chase Dining Hall
11:00am-12:00pm Workshop Session 1, Meneely Classrooms
12:15pm-1:15pm Lunch, Chase Dining Hall
1:30pm-2:30pm Workshop Session 2, Meneely Classrooms
3:00pm-5:00pm Citizen-Consumer Election, Chase Dining Hall
5:00pm-5:20pm Event Debrief
6:00pm-7:00pm Dinner, Chase Dining Hall
7:00pm-10:00pm Party, Chase Dining Hall
Saturday, June 22 (optional)
7:00am-9:00am Check-out, Pine Hall
7:30am-8:45am Breakfast, Chase Dining Hall
9:30am Equal Exchange Roastery Tour, Optional
50 United Drive, West Bridgewater, MA
Overnight accommodation will be provided for anyone wishing to stay on campus Thursday or Friday night. There is no charge for the event this year.
Keynote Address
Same Foundation, New Beliefs: Two Co-Founders Reflect on Life After Equal Exchange
Equal Exchange would not be here today if it were not for the vision, smarts, and persistence of the folks keynoting our Citizen-Consumer Summit this year: Michael Rozyne and Jonathan Rosenthal.
The same could be said for their fellow co-founder and current Co-Executive Director Rink Dickinson. But while Equal Exchange has benefited from Rink’s continuity at the helm, where has their journey beyond EE led Jonathan and Michael? What lessons have they taken from their Equal Exchange experience to make the “good trouble” they have continued to make in the many years since they moved on? What mistakes have they been able to not repeat? From their many years of experience now outside EE, where do they place Equal Exchange in the world of market-based social change organizations? And what advice might they have for us that could strengthen our co-op and viability for the next 20 years?
Jonathan Rosenthal has been working since he was a teenager to convert the destructive aspects of oppressive organizations and systems into a people’s economy honoring mother earth. That journey has included co-founding Equal Exchange and Oke USA and consulting and leading organizations working to create a more just world. He is currently the interim executive director at Enroot in Cambridge, MA and an active advisor to the Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity and The Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective. He is married, has 2 adult daughters, and lives in Watertown, MA.
Michael Rozyne is the founder of Red Tomato, a regional food hub based in Providence, RI, that sources from 40 mid-sized fruit and vegetable farms and distributes primarily to supermarkets, as well as institutions such as schools, hospitals, and food banks. Red Tomato’s signature program is EcoCertified™, verifying local and sustainably-grown apples and peaches. He is the manager of the Farming & Food Narrative Project, a social science research project aimed at effective communications with a public audience. In 1986, Rozyne co-founded the fair trade food company Equal Exchange, a worker-owned cooperative.
Workshop Descriptions
Equal Exchange Alternative Capital: From Worker Control to Community Crowdfund Investing
Meneely 209 | Workshop Session 1 & 2
Presented by Nicole Vitello, Equal Exchange Capital Coordinator
Equal Exchange has been a major innovator in the way that social mission-driven companies can secure financing. Our Capital Model includes outside preferred Class B non-voting shares, inside worker-owner Class A voting shares, debt financing from mission-aligned sources, and retained earnings that worker-owners reinvest annually. By working cooperatively, not just with what we buy and sell but with how we finance our business, we are transforming our economy together. Take a walk with us through our capital history and learn more about the results of our first Regulation Crowdfund Campaign which has further democratized our capital model by opening up investing to more people at lower minimums.
Making it Real: Coop Food Stores Living their Values in the Community
Meneely 207 | Workshop Session 2
Presented by Dan Ridgway of Brattleboro Food Coop; Rebecca White, Public & Government Affairs Associate at Hanover Coop Food Store; Katharine Arnold, Marketing & Member Relations, Wellness, Coffee at Buffalo Mountain Market
Join representatives of three consumer food coops to discuss how they aspire to live and carry out their commitments to local communities every day. Learn of New Hampshire Coop Food Stores’ city, state, and national advocacy work and Brattleboro Coop’s community efforts to address food insecurity through ideas like a Food For All Program. Our panelists will share lessons learned—from both successes and failures—and present opportunities for more deeply engaging their members and the surrounding communities.
Solidaridad and Agrofair: The Remarkable Story Behind the World’s Largest Fresh Fruit Alternative Trade Organization
Meneely 102 | Workshop Session 2
Presented by Jeroen Kroezen, Mudita Cooperative
The global north founding of the fair trade movement is traced directly to Holland, where the Max Havelaar seal identified coffee produced under defined terms. Years later, in Holland, again, the fair trade certification was extended to bananas. Behind these efforts were two Alternative Trade Organizations (ATO), Solidaridad and Agrofair. With bananas, Solidaridad talked to all the multinational banana companies, but none of them were interested in the concept so they boldly started their own banana company. AgroFair—A Dutch Fairtrade fruit company, which is 40 percent owned by small-scale banana producers—still accounts for more than a tenth of the global Fairtrade banana market. In this workshop, you will learn these fascinating histories from a veteran of both of these organizations, with a particular emphasis on the challenges of building a successful ATO dedicated to producers of bananas and other perishable fruits.
Fair Trade Without Fair Traders
Meneely 102 | Workshop Session 1
Presented by Pushpika Freitas, MarketPlace: Handwork of India
Join founder Pushpika Freitas of MarketPlace: Handwork of India to be inspired by the pioneering work of her organization, and for a wider discussion on the evolution of fair trade. Like Equal Exchange, MarketPlace is an Alternative Trade Organization that started in the 1980’s at a time when the concept of fair trade was just getting off the ground. As members of the cooperatives that make up Marketplace, women learn leadership skills all while weaving beautiful clothing and textiles. Sharing mutual values, Equal Exchange and MarketPlace have collaborated extensively over the decades since then. Today, however, Fair Trade has become greenwashed and commodified. What can we learn from the history, successes and failures of MarketPlace (and Equal Exchange) today?
Community-Driven Fundraising
Meneely 207 | Workshop Session 1
Presented by Sue & John Morris, Just Food Hub, VT
Just Food Hub is a fundraising model in Vermont that distributes ethically sourced food to buying clubs formed by local charities and nonprofits as well as small businesses throughout New England. Sue and John Morris pioneered Just Food Hub in May 2021 inspired by the Equal Exchange model. Sue’s passion for social justice and having recently retired from her full time career as an Editor in their worker-owned cooperative business led her to the creation of Just Food Hub. Learn how this community-driven distribution group supports fundraising initiatives through their commitment to source organic and authentically fairly traded food from Equal Exchange, grown by Black and Brown small farmer worker cooperatives in the Global South and Palestine and small organic farms in the United States.
Palestinian Olive Oil & Medjool Dates from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee
Meneely 105 | Workshop Session 1 & 2
Presented by Susan Sklar, EE Interfaith Manager with Special Guest, Jim Harb, Director, Olive Branch Olive Oil - Southeast
Many of you have purchased our Organic Olive Oil from small farmers in the West Bank for years. Did you ever wonder exactly how the oil and dates get from the farmers to Equal Exchange? Come to this workshop to learn more about our organizational partner, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), and find out how these farmers are faring at this tragic and dangerous time in the Middle East. Joining us will be Jim Harb, who is the Director of Olive Branch Olive Oil–Southeast, located in Knoxville, TN, to describe his project of distribution to church congregations in the southeast U.S.
More details will be added to this page as they are announced.
Questions? Email Danielle and Frankie at organizing@equalexchange.coop or call (774) 776-7366.