MBiz

22 MBiz May 2014 T he FIFA World Cup in Brazil will kickstart renewed efforts to pursue a major goal at Portage la Prairie's MCC Thrift Shop. Manager Kevin Hamm wants Portage to become a fair- trade town, and the World Cup will provide a fresh opportunity to raise awareness in June. "We're going to start carrying and selling fair-trade soccer balls, and we're also going to present some of these soccer balls to local schools and organizations," Hamm says. "We want to keep it in the news. We want to keep it there in peoples' minds." All 16 MCC Thrift Stores in Manitoba promote fair trade and raise money for the Mennonite Central Committee's relief work and development projects around the world. MCC's non- profi t Ten Thousand Villages stores are leaders in fair trade, supporting artisans in 29 countries. When you buy fair-trade goods, you can be sure the people responsible for producing them received a fair price for their work. The Portage thrift store already carries products such as coffee and sugar. When the store celebrated its 30th anniversary last fall, staff delivered bags of fair-trade goods to 30 local businesses, and Hamm made a presentation urging city council to put Portage on the road to becoming a fair-trade town. So far, there's been no response from city hall, and Hamm says he hasn't followed up yet. "It is an election year, so before October I would like to get that back in the news again as far as the council is concerned. Maybe we can even get a few of them on record going up to election saying whether they would be in favour of supporting it." Fair Trade Canada recognized Manitoba Liquor Marts and Gimli's The Fresh Carrot food store with awards last fall. Gimli earned classifi cation as Manitoba's fi rst fair-trade town in 2009, and Brandon is on the verge of becoming the province's fi rst fair-trade city. "That was actually part of my pitch to Portage city council. I said, 'Gimli beat us to it, but Portage could become the fi rst city,' " Hamm says. FAIR TRADE LOBBY MCC SHOP MAKES THE PITCH IN PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE by Holli Moncrieff C E N T R A L MBiz_spring2014.indd Sec1:22 MBiz_spring2014.indd Sec1:22 5/14/14 8:27:17 AM 5/14/14 8:27:17 AM

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