Celebrating Co-op and Fairtrade Month
Every October, two movements with shared values come into focus: Fairtrade Month and Co-op Month. For us at Gimme, this overlap serves as a powerful reminder that people working together, across communities and across continents, can transform existing systems built on inequity into ones rooted in dignity, sustainability, and shared prosperity.
Fairtrade: Building Equity at the Source
Around the world, smallholder farmers grow the everyday essentials that fuel our lives—coffee, cocoa, bananas, sugar, and more. Yet these staples are funneled through global trade systems built on colonial legacies and power imbalances that persist to this day. For many producers, the stakes are high: fair pay, dignified working conditions, and sustainable futures for farming communities are all one the line.
By choosing to invest in Fairtrade Certified products, we are taking impactful steps toward a fairer system. Fairtrade standards are designed to provide more stable prices and additional premiums that farmers themselves choose how to reinvest. These community-driven investments fund everything from agricultural tools and processing facilities to schools, scholarships, health care programs, and climate-conscious farming practices.
In 2024 alone, our purchases at Gimme generated over $51,000 in Fairtrade Premiums through the sale of 116,690 kilograms of coffee. Altogether, since becoming a Fairtrade partner, we’ve collaborated to raise more than $161,000 in lifetime Fairtrade Premiums for farmers worldwide. That’s money directly reinvested by cooperatives into stronger communities, healthier environments, and more resilient futures.
When we say that every cup matters, we mean that collective purchasing choices—made by communities of partners and customers just like you—truly add up.
Cooperatives: Shared Ownership, Shared Future
Here at home, Gimme embodies another form of collective action: the cooperative model. Founded in 2000 and re-established in 2022 as an employee-owned cooperative, we chose this path because we believe in more than just profit-sharing—we believe in shared decision-making.
Every Gimme employee has the opportunity to become an employee-owner by meeting membership criteria and purchasing an equity share. Owners receive one vote, one voice, and a share of the cooperative’s annual patronage dividends when profits allow. Our governance is democratic: strategic decisions are made collectively, Board members are elected by peers, and committees focus on areas like sustainability, finance, and community outreach.
This structure ensures that the people who know the business best are also the ones directly assisting to steer its direction. Cooperation here at Gimme means aligning our internal culture with the values we champion externally: solidarity, equity, and sustainability. Our motto is ‘We / Us / Our’ because we see Gimme! Coffee as a community of communities that, both individually and collectively, contribute to our self-determined and shared successes. And perhaps it’s both the cause and the effect of that mutualism that we also have a lot of fun together.
Facing Market Challenges with Hope
Coffee has always been vulnerable to forces far beyond the farm or the café. In recent years, tariffs and climate instability have pushed market prices to unprecedented highs. These pressures ripple across the supply chain, affecting both producers and consumers. Yet even in this difficult moment, there is reason for hope.
Fairtrade standards are designed to buffer farmers against volatility by setting minimum prices and providing premiums that act as a financial cushion. Cooperatives, both abroad and here at Gimme, create stronger systems of mutual support that help weather uncertainty. When farmers are not forced to prioritize survival at all costs, they can invest in sustainability, quality, and long-term resilience. When baristas and roasters share ownership, they can prioritize people and the planet over short-term gains.
The challenges are real. But together—with our customers, our wholesale partners, and our beloved community of communities—we are part of a global network proving that another way forward is possible.
Why October Matters
When we recognize Fairtrade Month and Co-op Month side by side, the connection becomes clear. Both movements are built on the principle that when people organize together, they are stronger—whether that’s farmers banding together to secure fairer terms in the global market, or workers shaping the future of their own workplace. That’s what we are celebrating this month.
This is also why we believe that every cup of coffee represents more than flavor—it’s a story of what is possible when we stand together. From smallholder farmers in coffee-growing regions to baristas and roasters in Ithaca, our work is tied to a global movement toward dignity, fairness, and sustainability.
This October, we invite you to raise a cup with us—to celebrate not just coffee, but the communities, near and far, that make it possible.
