Coffee, with just a touch of sugar, and sweet jam spread over warm toast ... it's the way many of us start our day. (As you know, in Wholesome Sweeteners' book, it’s always a sweeter day's start when it’s Fair Trade, too.)

Wholesome Sweeteners' founder and CEO Nigel Willerton (right) will join the team of business and community leaders for the 12-day event. (Nigel completed in his first Iron Man triathlon in 2008, and he's been an avid competitor ever since.)

While Nigel loves the sheer force of will it takes to compete, he finds so much more in it: "Running gives me freedom," he says. "Freedom aids creativity and true creativity means you have the opportunity to be something better tomorrow than you were today."

Fair Trade & Coffee:

Wholesome's fair trade sugars and honeys are a few of many Fair Trade Certified products available in the US, but coffee is, easily, fair trade's leading product. More Fair Trade Certified coffee is sold here than all of the other Fair Trade Certified products combined.

Coffee has a long history in Ethiopia. More than 600 years ago, merchants exported the world’s first cultivated coffee beans from Ethiopia, beginning what has since become a multi-billion dollar industry. However, in modern-day Ethiopia, in spite of the fact that the country’s coffee exports account for nearly 60% of the national GDP, many coffee farmers and their families live in extreme poverty. Few have access to schools and clinics, or safe water. In the Yirgacheffe region, where some of the world’s most unique and sought-after coffees originate, barely half of the region’s children complete primary school. The adult literacy rate is 36 percent. Life expectancy is 53 years.

		A number of coffee farmers are taking their future into their own hands. At the Negele Gorbitu fair trade coffee cooperative in the town of Afursa Waro, members used their first fair trade social premiums to build a health clinic and primary school.
		It was a good start, but today the primary school is overfilled with students and under-stocked with school supplies ...
		and access to water and nutrition are minimal, at best. There is so much more that can be done.

On The Ground & Run Across Ethiopia

After visiting Higher Grounds's Ethiopian fair trade coffee suppliers and seeing things first-hand, Treter started On The Ground as a way to go beyond paying a fair price and social premiums. He wanted to do more, and knew that with the right partners, they could have a much larger impact. Today, through a network of key partners, including several other coffee roasters, On The Ground develops innovative fundraising programs to support Fair Trade communities across the globe. Case in point: On The Ground invited a number of the US's Fair Trade leaders to combine their personal passion for long-distance running and their commitment to corporate social responsibility to raise funds for new schools in Ethiopia.

Timothy Fitzgerald Young, runner and founder/chief chef of Food For Thought (their preserves are exceptionally delicious!) has been traveling in Ethiopia, making arrangements for the Run and for the schools the funds raised will build. He sent the above images and wrote ...

I was taken aback yesterday when I walked into a small dirt-floored classroom the size of a two-car garage with over 100 students crammed in it like sardines. There were seven classroom just like this, all packed wall to wall with students eager to learn, most of them sitting on stumps or log benches. Only a few in the front had a writing surface.  It was a stark reminder of just how committed Ethiopians are to education and how much difference your efforts are going to make for them. We are truly blessed that we have the ability to make a difference in the lives of others and your efforts will pay off for this community for generations. 

The evening before the Run Across Ethiopia begins, runners will participate in a press conference and enjoy a dinner hosted by the OCFCU in the capital city of Addis Ababa (where they'll be joined by several of Ethiopia's most elite marathoners). Over the next 10 days, the runners will go from Addis Ababa through the lush and ecologically diverse Great Rift Valley, then climb into the Ethiopian Highlands, and finish near the town of Yirgacheffe. There, residents of Afursa Waro and representatives from OCFCU will join the race for the last 10 km, through the countryside to the community of Afursa Waro and the Negele Gorbitu coffee cooperative. The Run Across Ethiopia will end with a community-wide fete celebrating all that fair trade premiums have brought to the villages’ education system, and the possibilities created by the runners’ effort to build beyond what’s on the ground now.

So now, the only question is "are you in?"

We hope that you'll join Wholesome Sweeteners by donating today. You may donate directly through  On The Ground on line (click "DONATE NOW" to be directed to the secure PayPal site, and be sure to leave Nigel a note under the "Add special instructions to the seller" link) or by mail (pdf). If you prefer to send a donation directly to Nigel at Wholesome Sweeteners, please make the check out to On The Ground and send it to:

Nigel Willerton/RAE
Wholesome Sweeteners
8016 Highway 90A
Sugar Land TX 77478

As always, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop Nigel a note of encouragement at RunAcrossEthiopia@OrganicSugars.biz, or post it on our Facebook page. Thanks for your help and support. It's just another way we're going the extra mile to make the world a sweeter place. (Well, Nigel will be going the extra miles ... and we’ll be cheering him every step of the way.)