Rice to expand fair-trade coffee from coffee house

Rice to expand fair-trade coffee from coffee house

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Rice University’s food serveries have agreed to use fair-trade coffee this fall, expanding the service from the Rice Coffee House , which has been selling the product for a year and a half. The associate vice president of Housing and Dining , Mark Ditman, called the decision “market-driven.”

The move has landed Rice on the Fair Trade Certified Web site as a “fair-trade campus.”

The Rice Coffee House helped promote fair-trade coffee at Rice. Heather Villalobos, retail operations supervisor at the student center, said, “It’s just as economical to serve fair-trade coffee as another product that is mass-marketed.”

The move was the result of a grass-roots effort. Student surveys conducted this spring indicated strong support for fair-trade coffee, according to Frank Rodriguez, director of business and facilities at Housing and Dining.

“It was obvious in the surveys that the students were making a push for fair-trade coffee,” Rodriguez said. “We’re a customer service organization, so we do what’s best for the students and the university as a whole.”

The Fair Trade Certified Web site describes the fair-trade movement’s goals as empowering “farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.”

While the long-range goal is to improve the lives of coffee farmers around the world, Villalobos said the effort at Rice focused on more immediate concerns.

Supporting local business

“We used taste and quality — not a political campaign –” to convince the Rice community, she said. In addition, the coffee is provided by Houston-based roaster Katz Coffee , so Rice’s move supports a local business.

The Coffee House has also made an effort to be environmentally conscious, donating its compost to a campus group.

But why would the Coffee House, which is twice as busy as it was a year ago, push for Rice serveries to give away the same kind of coffee that it sells to students?

Villalobos said it’s all about marketing. The serveries only dispense coffee at meal times, while the Coffee House is open all day until 11 p.m. “We want the Coffee House to be on people’s minds when they’re having a cup of coffee at the servery,” Villalobos explained.

Another factor is the impending arrival of competition in the form of the Pavilion. Construction is to begin soon on the 16,770-square-foot facility behind Fondren Library that will feature a coffee and sandwich shop that will serve Diedrich-brewed coffee, a national chain. “We wanted to have organic and free-trade products to differentiate ourselves from other potential vendors coming onto campus,” said Villalobos.

One of President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century goals is to “provide the spaces and facilities that will cultivate greater dynamism and vibrancy on the campus and foster our sense of community.”

Villalobos said the students who run the Coffee House support that objective and would like to ensure the Coffee House continues to add to the Rice experience in the future. According to a survey, it’s the No. 1 reason people come to the Student Center , and Villalobos is confident the coffee shop will maintain its core clientele.