Last fall my son’s school participated in a grand tradition passed down through decades of public schools in America — fundraising. I flipped through the catalog of reusable grocery totes, hoping to show my support of the school but finally deciding I couldn’t buy the totes without knowing how they were made.
I did buy a school t-shirt, even after seeing that they were made in Honduras.
Then I bought handfuls of random “made in China” tchotchkes as prizes for the upcoming school carnival.
Apparently having a school-aged child is hard on one’s ethics.
After some digging, I discovered that fair trade company Equal Exchange has their own fundraising catalog, featuring coffee and chocolate, plus accessories from Ten Thousand Villages.
I love the idea of a school fundraiser that encourages economic justice — and then I wonder about the inequality in my own community. What about the families struggling from paycheck to paycheck? Extolling the virtues of fair trade to people who are just trying to make ends meet seems insensitive at best.
We could source school shirts from a company like Imagine Goods or even American Apparel, but would that raise the price of school spirit wear beyond what the average family can afford?
I could have gone to Ten Thousand Villages to get prizes for the school carnival, but I didn’t. It would have cost me a trip across town and a lot more money. I dreaded ordering anything from Oriental Trading Company, so I waited long enough that my easiest choice was hitting Target for cheap party favors.
Can I really expect families in my neighborhood to pay extra for ethical school t-shirts or fairly sourced fundraisers when I struggle to make that choice in my own life? I wonder if there is a way to address inequality and injustice overseas as well as here at home.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, my friends.
This is a very insightful and considerate post. Thank you. I often struggle with the dichotomy of my idealism and the practicality of living in reality. Being sensitive to the disparity of income and how it could affect anothers’s ability to meet their ideals is not always at the forefront of decision making by people with a higher income. I have found myself pulled up short when it hits me.
There are options and possibilities for better fundraising out there but it will take additional researchand probably some creativity to make it happen. One is to switch to an art fundraising program like Square 1. The prices are not the cheapest, but there is a range & the items are precious. Every kid gets a magnet for participating. There are more ideas out there, from people with the same concerns, and when you come across them I’d love to hear all about them!
Hi Christy,
I hear you.
I’m currently in a battle to try to convince my daughter’s school to switch to a fantastic company in the UK called Koolschools, which offers Fairtrade uniforms (all schools here have mandatory uniforms) at almost the same price as conventional ones… It seems crazy that somewhere like a school which is forming our children and teaching them values (hopefully) would opt for anything else… I’ll let you know how it goes!