Trip to Massachusetts to Explore Cooperative Ventures

On February 19th 2011, The YOUTH ECONOMIC GROUP of RMM visited eastern Massachusetts on a 3-day educational trip. 

We arrived at a quaint church in Weston , MA which would be our home base for the weekend. After a wonderful dinner with our hosts, and former RMM board member, The Rev. Stephen Voysey and his wife Amanda, we had the opportunity to watch the movie 'Capitalism, A Love Story', by filmmaker Michael Moore. 

Early Sunday, YEG prepared breakfast and headed into Boston to explore some  historical sites. None of the members of YEG had ever been to Boston. We had the opportunity to visit the Institute of Contemporary Art. The museum was innovative and cutting edge in both design and exhibits; YEG loved it and gathered ideas and inspiration to apply to their newly forming business venture.

Following a terrific lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Brookline - again, none of us had ever eaten in a Vietnamese restaurant! we went to our first meeting:  the Ten Thousand Villages Store.  Ten Thousand Villages sells cooperative crafts from around the world. YEG checked out the hundreds of unique and fairly traded items and then met with the manager of the Store to discuss how the business operates.

Later that afternoon we traveled to a workshop at Harvard University for. The topic was geared to youth empowerment programs and focused upon promoting your message. We had the opportunity to meet with other youth organizations who shared similar goals to YEG and promoted social justice issues in the Boston area. The groups connected nicely and shared many common perspectives on a wide variety of topics.

The group then explored Harvard Square, examining store fronts and displays - giving thought to how they might set up their own store.

To wrap up the day, the group decided to cook their own dinner, stopped at the Whole Foods Market, purchased ingredients to cook a home-style organic Mexican dinner and closed with a review of the the day's events.

Early Monday we traveled to southeastern Massachusetts, to visit The Equal Exchange Fair Trade Cooperative (EE). EE began with three people and has grown into a cooperative company with over 125 employees and sales over 32 million dollars. YEG had been looking forward to this opportunity for months and we were prepared with lots of questions .The Youth Economic Group was welcomed by the CEO of the EE and introduced to the company's structure and philosophy. Next we toured the high- tech coffee-roasting facility and chocolate warehouse and were also instructed on coffee tasting , quality control, company relationships with the farmers and sourcing for product. We finished our day and had an opportunity to meet with the marketing and advertising dept. and other staff members/partners, for a Q&A session related to YEG and specifics about the start up of YEG's own cooperative business.   

WhyHunger Announces 2010 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards

As Rural & Migrant Ministry proudly celebrate 30 Years of service to rural and farmworking families, we are pleased to be named one of '10 grassroots organizations nationwide to be awarded a grant for exemplary work in creating lasting change in its community.'

The Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards
A Partnership of WhyHunger and the Harry Chapin Foundation

For more than 20 years and with the generous support of the Harry Chapin Foundation, WhyHunger has been administering the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Awards program which distributes grants to honor outstanding grassroots organizations in the United States that have moved beyond charity to creating change in their communities. Organizations selected as Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award winners are judged outstanding for their innovative and replicable approaches to fighting domestic hunger and poverty by empowering people and building self-reliance.

'Rural and Migrant Ministry is an interfaith organization that aims to overcome the prejudices and poverty that degrade and debilitate all members of our society by building communities that celebrate diversity and offer dignity and opportunity to all people in the Catskills and Hudson Valley of New York.  Money from the Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award will support their Youth Arts Group, which helps low-income youth life skills and job-readiness skills.'