Are you anxious about the new school year? Muggy Mondays has just the thing to make your Monday (and Wednesday) mornings a little bit better!
Muggy Mondays offers FREE fair trade coffee, tea, and hot chocolate to anyone who brings a reusable mug. In fact, we gave out 2,289 cups last year! Believe me when I say tremendous effort and love goes into each and every cup of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate we serve. Allow me to pass along just a snapshot of the passion that goes into each mug:
VOLUNTEERS
Muggy Monday volunteers are small in number, but big in heart. Most of our volunteers don't even drink coffee, seriously like only a quarter of them do, but they still arrive at 7:30am to prepare everything – and they do it with a smile! Their positive attitude will cheer you up even on the darkest and coldest mornings! Interested in volunteering? E-mail us at muggymondaysclub@gmail.com
COFFEE
All good coffee begins with the beans! Kicking Horse Coffee roasts only the best shade-grown, organic coffee, maybe better than anyone else in Canada. Using this coffee ensures healthy, balanced ecosystems that promote environmental sustainability. Shade-grown coffee grows under a light canopy of varied vegetation at high altitudes that create a more resilient ecosystem. Organic farmers avoid pollutants, pesticides, and herbicides that otherwise contaminate soil and water. Such practices attract more birds and wildlife that assist in the cross-pollination of coffee beans and seeds, which then enhances plate distribution and diversity.Coffee is the largest cash crop and second largest traded commodity in the world! Severe market fluctuations often cause suffering to coffee farmers, who receive little financial return for their labour-intensive crops. Kicking Horse has adopted a fair trade model that guarantees a fair price for coffee. Securing a fairer wage provides economic stability and higher living standards for farmers, as well as improves their access to loans, technical assistance, and educational opportunities. Supporting Kicking Horse encourages environmental and social sustainability!
HOT CHOCOLATE
Camino is another Canadian company that sells fair-trade and organic products. It was the first registered importer of Fairtrade Certified cocoa and sugar in North America! Their ingredients are sourced from co-operatives of family farmers in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Sri Lanka. These direct and close relationships ensure transparency, respect, and fairness throughout the supply chain. Camino products therefore guarantee fair prices to family farmers, which assist in their long-term planning and pre-harvest financing. Premiums also are paid to cooperatives in order to improve the social conditions in their communities. Join the path – or el camino! Together we are building a fair, healthy, and sustainable future.Are you starting to see a pattern here? We want you to get only the best products and we want you to be able to enjoy them while knowing that the people who produce them for you are happy, healthy, and being treated failry.
So drop by the second floor of the FSS building between 8:00 and 12:00 on Monday mornings in order to get your cup of fair-trade coffee, tea, or hot chocolate! Or, this year, find us in the lobby of Fauteux between 8:00 and 10:00 on Wednesday mornings!
~ catherine - muggy mondays coordinator