Fair Treatment and Fair Pay: Celebrating Fair Trade Month

Every October, Bon Appétit Management Company recognizes Fair Trade Month by educating our guests about the importance of the internationally recognized certification for ethically made products, which supports equitable global supply chains.  

Early adopters of the Fair Trade movement back in the 1950s realized that global commodities like bananas, coffee, tea, and chocolate were highly vulnerable to exploitation, leaving international workers in unfair and unsafe working conditions while enriching those at the end of the supply chain. The Fair Trade Certification combats this by ensuring that workers at Fair Trade certified farms receive fair treatment and fair pay, which gives consumers greater transparency that a product was ethically made.  

Becoming Fair Trade certified is a complex and rigorous third-party certification process that takes many months to ensure minimum requirements for labor standards are being met, followed by an annual audit process to maintain the Fair Trade label. In order to protect workers from volatile price fluctuations of commodities on the global market, companies adopt a Fair Trade Minimum Price to create a safety net for workers to have sustained livelihoods. Each Fair Trade product also has a premium that goes into a Community Development Fund, which is used towards community investment projects agreed upon by workers in the Fair Trade Committee.  

We are proud to source Fair Trade tea companywide, and to continue working towards better conditions and compensation for producers abroad during Fair Trade Month and beyond.