The Café Campesino staff has a full slate of spring activities, and you'll find the rundown in this month's Community Caravan. You'll also find a piece on Fair Trade chocolate for Easter, a customer spotlight on Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville, North Carolina, and some links to websites that we hope will get your creative juices flowing. All that plus a new trivia question, a recipe for Indonesian Java Marinade (yum!), and a Dr. Coffee question – so grab a cup of your favorite brew and read on!

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From March 19-21, our roaster Lee will be in Washington, D.C., at this springs’s CoffeeFest. CoffeeFest Trade Shows are held three times a year, in D.C., Las Vegas, and Seattle. Each CoffeeFest is a complete industry-wide trade show, with invaluable educational programming, Free-Pour Latte Art Competition, new product showcase, opening night reception, incredible special attractions and tremendous networking opportunities. It’ll be a terrific opportunity for Lee to see the latest products available and network with peers.

This year, as in past years, Café Campesino’s coffee will be served at Greenprints 2004, March 18-19, at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta. Co-hosted by our long-time customer Southface Energy Institute, Greenprints brings together practitioners and visionaries committed to changing the way people think about architecture, planning and the use of natural resources.

Next month, we’ll be back serving up coffee and morning snacks at the B.R.A.G. Spring Tune-Up, April 16-18 (www.brag.org). Geoffrey and Victoria will be serving coffee to the sleepy masses in Milledgeville. If you’re interested in trying the week-long B.R.A.G. ride in June, consider warming up your bike legs with us in Milledgeville, GA.

The next weekend will see us in Atlanta at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 16th Annual Conference & Exhibition. From April 23-26, we will be sharing a booth with Larry’s Beans (www.larrysbeans.com) and Bongo Java Roasting Co. (www.bongojava.com), fellow members of Cooperative Coffees (www.cooperativecoffees.com). Cooperative Coffees will also be represented, and we’ll be serving up Fair Trade coffee, in both regular and espresso. If you’ll be in Atlanta that weekend, be sure to stop by the Georgia World Congress Center and say hello!

In addition to these events, Café Campesino has signed on to join many other local Sumter County businesses in the Partnership in Education plan with Sumter County Schools. Every couple of weeks, we’ll be going out to the schools to talk about Fair Trade and environmental issues. We’re very excited to have this opportunity to bring knowledge of the Fair Trade movement to the youth of our community!

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One group that's taking on Fair Trade chocolate advocacy this Easter season is United Students for Fair Trade (profiled in the May 2003 issue of Fair Grounds). The collaboration of student Fair Trade initiatives working towards social and ecological justice through the promotion of Fair Trade is organizing their second annual Fair Trade Chocolate fundraiser. Students can use the fundraised money to support their campus activities. The organizers see it as a great way to spread the word to student bodies that Fair Trade is not only about coffee, but is an alternative trade model involving many commodities.

Last spring, schools participating in USFT's Fair Trade chocolate fundraiser sold over $10,000 worth of chocolate. The winning school receives a $250 prize to buy Fair Trade Crafts from Serrv International (www.serrv.org). Campuses will have one month — this year in April — to sell the most chocolate. The winner will be announced on May 2nd. For more information, visit www.usft.org.

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When it comes to being a socially responsible business, Rosetta’s Kitchen in Asheville, North Carolina goes the extra mile. Rosetta Rzany and the employees at Rosetta’s Kitchen, an all-hours vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurant, are setting a new standard for restaurants everywhere. The majority of the food is organic, and whenever possible, purchased from local farmers. In keeping with their organic theme, they purchase Fair Trade, organic Mexico Chiapas coffee from us! The Kitchen practices composting and recycling, and holds monthly employee meetings that allow for democratic decision-making. They also support local non-profit organizations with a monthly donation of all change tips. Be sure to stop by the next time you’re in Asheville!

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We're giving away coffee! 

Think you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair Grounds Trivia Contest. Click here for our question of the month. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

Our latest Coffee Knowledge winner is Stacey Elliott. She knew who the first American coffee trader was before our judges knew themselves. Congratulations, Stacey.

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Founded in 2001, BookCrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com/about) is a unique book exchange and book-sentric community site conceived and created as a labor of love by Ron Hornbaker. The BookCrossing.com phenomenon has been the focus of countless TV, radio, and newspaper features, between 200 and 500 new members from around the world join every day. Take a look, sign up, and start releasing your own books into the wild!

www.tangents.co.uk/50words/
Try your hand at a short short story! Go to Fifty Word Fiction to read others submissions, and when you’re ready, submit your own story.

www.phototag.org/
Snap a photo and pass the camera along to a friend. See what the folks at phototag.org have discovered on film when people return their disposable cameras.

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– William Ukers, All About Coffee

• February 2004 Bill's Return to Guatemala, Guayakí Rainforest
• January 2004 Espresso - What's the Buzz?
• December 2003 Fair Trade: Global Exchange's Fair Trade Challenge; Fellow Fair Traders: SERRV International
• November 2003 Fair Trade: More Than Just a Fair Price; Fellow Fair Traders: Lucuma Designs
• October 2003 Exploring the Coffee Regions
• September 2003 Cooperative Coffees Annual Meeting
• August 2003 Fair Trade Friends: Oxfam America; The Art (and Science) of Roasting Coffee
• July 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra
• June 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Guatemala; Gayo Mountain Adventure; Dr. Coffee - Cupping
• May 2003 Fair Trade Friends: United Students for Fair Trade; World Fair Trade Day
• April 2003 Exploring Our Origins: Ethiopia; Celebrating Earth Day with Fair Trade
• March 2003 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 2; SWP Decaffeination
• February 2002 Bill's Central American Adventures, Part 1
• January 2003 My Life as a Bean
• December 2002 Exploring Our Origins: East Timor; Sustainable Development
• November 2002 New Website; Gift Baskets
• October 2002 Interview with roaster Lee Harris
• September 2002 ForesTrade Wins UN Sustainability Award; Exploring Our Origins: Sumatra's Gayo Cooperative
• August 2002 Producer News: Shade Grown; Fair Trade Friends: Atlanta Audubon
• July 2002 Exploring Our Origins: Colombia
• June 2002 Back Roads Journal: Cooperative Coffees and Café Campesino; Exploring Our Origins: Peru; Fair Trade Friends: Music of the Andes
• May 2002 Staff Notes: Cinco de Mayo; Producer News: Visit to Mut Viz; Back Roads Journal: SCAA Meeting
• April 2002 Back Roads Journal: Travels in Fair Trade; Customer Composting Tip