If we are all being honest, I think we can admit that the majority of us have heard of fair trade, have a vague notion of fair trade, but honestly have no idea what fair trade is actually all about. The University of Ottawa was inaugurated as Canada's 7th FairTrade Campus in 2014, thanks largely to the many student volunteers and Food Service employees who pushed to get this designation. I won't go into what it means to be a Fairtrade campus, you can look up all the criteria online . But I will share with you some interesting insight that I gained during Fair Trade Campus Week (FTCW). I was surprised to find out just how important fair trade is to the environmental movement. So you may have already noticed that I keep jumping around the spelling of Fair Trade. This is not a mistake, seriously, it isn't. Fair trade is not the same as Fairtrade. Fair trade is a concept about better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and ...

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 sh...

So you have an uncontrollable urge to drink coffee but you don't want to pay for it? Fear not dear friends,  Muggy Mondays  has you covered, no questions asked. Of course you are all familiar with the quirky characters of Muggy Mondays who bring you free coffee every Monday morning if you present a reusable coffee mug. And if you aren't familiar, drop by the  FSS building  on the second floor next Monday and we will remedy that problem for you. But one of the things that many people don't realize is the tremendous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to get that coffee into your hands, let alone the care and attention that goes into making that coffee for you. Allow me to shed some light on the Making of Muggy Mondays! BEANS A good cup of coffee starts with the beans. For the past few years, Muggy Mondays has been using Detour Coffee procured from the good people at  Café Alt . Recently, there was a switch over to Kicking Horse who had bee...