Manhattan College To Host Three-Day Visit By Mexican Coffee Farmer As Part Of Fair Trade Month

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Manhattan College’s office of campus ministry and social action (CMSA) and the student group JustPeace will host a coffee farmer from Mexico in the Bronx and on campus from Oct. 8-10. This is possible due to a small grant from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to promote fair trade.

Rigoberto Contreras Diaz’s visit to the Bronx will begin on Wednesday evening, Oct. 8, with a meeting at Our Lady of Refuge Parish, where he will address a largely Spanish speaking community about his work and the value of fair trade coffee to this family and community. As part of the meeting, fair trade coffee will be served and a free sample of the company’s chocolate will be distributed along with brochures on fair trade handcrafts from around the world.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, Diaz will visit Spanish classes on the Manhattan College campus and is scheduled to speak (in Spanish with translation) in the Alumni Room of O’Malley Library at 4:30 p.m. Coffee and chocolates will again be served during the event, which is free and open to the public.

Last spring, Manhattan students involved in the social justice club JustPeace received a Fair Trade Market Building grant from CRS. The grant will help the students who work closely with CMSA to raise awareness throughout October (Fair Trade Month), as well as sponsor a symposium for local Catholic colleges in the spring.

The Fair Trade Federation is the trade association that strengthens and promotes North American organizations fully committed to fair trade. The federation is part of the global fair trade movement, which builds equitable and sustainable trading partnerships and creates opportunities to alleviate poverty.

CRS is the official international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic community. Its mission is to alleviate suffering and provide assistance to needy people in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality.

For more information, please contact Lois Harr, director of CMSA, at (718) 862-7142 or e-mail lois.harr@manhattan.edu.

Members of the media who would like to cover the events should call Scott Silversten at (718) 862-7232 or e-mail scott.silversten@manhattan.edu. Manhattan College is located at West 242nd Street near Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one mile from the Westchester County line and accessible by MTA subway line 1.

Founded in 1853, Manhattan College is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of undergraduate study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science, along with graduate programs in education and engineering. For more information about Manhattan College, visit www.manhattan.edu.