World Peace Cafe:
Part of our
Connections Time

It’s about our mission: “To Find, Grow and Send Disciples for Jesus Christ”. It’s about our vision, “to be a global congregation” and “to be a welcoming and caring community of faith”.

Connections time is the social half-hour many folks enjoy 10:30 – 11:00 on Sundays – “between the services” at the downtown church. If you haven’t been to Connections before, or if you are a “regular”, come visit this fall and experience something new!

Each month, we'll feature different coffees from around the world.
Read about this month's offering in our "What's the Buzz" article. 

> What's New About Connections?
> Connections Teams: A Service Mission
> Fair Trade vs. Unfair Trade
> World Peace Cafe Contributors

Enjoy hot drinks before church on Sunday, from 8:35 - 9:25am! Be an early bird to church this fall and reward yourself with a hot beverage from the World Peace Cafe! The World Peace Cafe will be open and set-up in the West Foyer on Sundays from 8:35am - 9:25am. This is a service to the choir, staff and anyone who arrives early on Sundays. Menu: brewed coffee, hot water for tea, epresso, lattes, steamers and hot chocolate. In September, proceeds from donations for these beverages go to Alpha House. Please remember: no beverages in the Sanctuary.

An important component of the new Connections is the switch to fair trade and direct trade coffee. We will also be featuring coffees sometimes that are organically grown or “sustainably” grown. Many church members have expressed strong interest in seeing FUMC support a living wage for coffee workers and environmentally sound practices with our weekly hot-drinks habits.

Connections time is part of FUMC’s Congregational Care ministry which receives pastoral support from Rev. Joanne Bartelt. The co-chairs for Connections time are Ruth Ann Church (662-7611, ruth.church@sbcglobal.net) and Marcie Austerberry (769-6158, vid_mlz73@hotmail.com ). We hope that you’ll share your feedback and ideas with any of these leaders as the Connections time and World Peace Café develop and grow.

What's new about Connections time?

- The World Peace Café espresso and smoothie bar – brought to you by hot drinks/smoothies teams staffed by FUMC youth and adult volunteers. These volunteers are passionate about coffee and doing the right thing for coffee growers who are historically marginalized in the coffee supply chain.

- Monthly beneficiary of World Peace Café proceeds. By suggesting donations of $1.75 to $4.00/drink at the espresso and smoothie bar, FUMC intends to not only cover the cost of supplying the drinks, but also to raise money for charities and projects. Read a report on the missions supported each month and how much we raised.

- Early bird World Peace Café service from 8:45-9:15am – for choir members and congregants who arrive before 9:15am, the World Peace Café will have it’s portable cart in the West Foyer and offer a limited selection of espresso drinks and brewed coffee. Please, no coffee drinks in the sanctuary!

- A rotating “menu” of snacks – brought to you by Connections food/cold drinks teams, staffed by volunteer adults who enjoy being part of a ministry that makes FUMC a more welcoming place.

- Highest quality coffees imported from the best estates and cooperatives in the best coffee growing regions. This information will be regularly provided in the current issue of the Messenger, the weekly bulletin, and here on our website.

- Fair trade and “beyond fair trade” coffee served from the same airpots FUMC members know and love during the coffee “hour”. Not familiar with fair trade or “beyond fair trade”? Read the “What’s the Buzz” column. Also, look for the special guest speakers that will speak in the social hall just after Connections time (11:00 – 11:15) periodically.

- Fair trade and organic teas. We are planning to eventually offer fair trade and organic teas, also.  

- Real cups – brought to you by FUMC members who decided that we had filled the landfills with enough styrofoam. By using the ceramic 8oz coffee cups the church already owns and the dishwasher, we’ll be saving money and the environment. We’ve also purchased colorful plastic re-usable tumblers for juice and water.

 - Eco-tainer cups “to-go”. For coffee and smoothie fans that want to take their drink with them, we have “to-go” cups called “eco-tainers”. They’re made with a corn-based material called PLA, instead of the insulating polymers used in other paper coffee cups. The cups are therefore more biodegradable than traditional cups (and certainly more recyclable than styrofoam.) Ruth Ann Church is conducting an experiment to see if one of these cups will biodegrade in her compost pile. Stay tuned for results. An extra 10¢ is requested for one of these “to-go” cups.

- Donations baskets on coffee and food tables. You’ll notice “donations requested” baskets on the coffee/tea table and food tables. Please help ensure that upgrading our Connections time with all of the above does not impact the church’s budget. By putting in $1.00/hot drink and $0.50/snack at the food table, you’re helping to ensure that our church budget goes towards valuable ministries, not drinks for our tummies! But please don’t let the donations basket put you off. Need a hot drink and have no extra change? Please still feel free to help yourself. First time visitors are encouraged to not contribute. FUMC still welcomes everyone to the “coffee & tea table”.

- Information tables. As before, around the social hall during Connections time you can find tables of information and volunteers eager to share more about current ministries and projects of FUMC. Stop by to chat and learn something new.

Connections teams: A Service Mission

The new Connections time is being made possible by a large number of volunteers who have accepted this opportunity for service -- to you(!) -- and to all who may walk through the doors of FUMC on a Sunday morning, wondering if this is a welcoming place.

We have a new structure for the Connections time volunteers. There are currently six Connections Food/Cold Drinks teams and five Hot Drinks/Smoothie teams. The Connections Food teams have a team leader and are responsible for providing the snacks, water and lemonade we enjoy during Connections. Four of the teams represent a specific group within our church (see table below). The fifth group, lead by Laurie Brannan, is an “open” group, where volunteers who want to do only this service (without joining another group in the church) can participate. All these volunteers are generously paying for the snacks with their own money.

The six Connections Hot Drinks/Smoothies teams are separate from the food teams, and in fact, there are two different kinds of Hot Drinks teams, because we have two different “shifts” of the World Peace Cafe. The “early shift team” is comprised of just one adult who can “do it all” and provide brewed coffee, tea and espresso during our 8:35 - 9:25am coffee service. The Hot drinks/Smoothies teams that serve during Connections time are comprised of an adult team leader and two 12th graders. Due to the skill involved with using our new espresso equipment, these volunteers have been to “barista school”. July 25th and September 8th, Zingerman’s Coffee Co. was here at FUMC to give our barista-wanna-bes hands-on training

The Connections leadership team (Ruth Ann Church, Marcy Austerberry and Rev. Joanne Bartelt) would like to give Zingerman’s and all the individuals listed below a BIG thank you for their time and dedicated effort.

Hot Drinks/Smoothie Teams

Team #	Adult Team Leader(s)	Team #	12th grade members
1	John Kaczor & Ruth Ann Church	1	Philip Jackson, Evan Gray
2	Jean Eridon	2	Grace Saunders, Alison Northrop
3	Lynn Pauer	3	Spencer Baily, Becca Melangton
4	Josh Warn	4	Laura Leach, Becky Punch
5	Jenny & Keith Kindred	5	Chris Culbertson, Alyssa Jeffries
Early	Brian Fowlkes
Early	Chris Steinman & David Nelson
Early	Judy Tatum

    

Connections Food/Cold Drinks Teams         

Team #	Team Leader	With members from...
1	Marcie Austerberry	WOWMOMs
2	Moni Dressler	Morning small group
3	Jan Radak	Jukebox Generation
4	Bev Bole	UMW
5	Laurie Brannan	Open to all volunteers
6	Deb Houghton	Disciple group

Some members of the hot drinks team got training from Zingerman’s on July 25th: (Top Row L to R) Becky Punch, John Kaczor, Jean Eridon, James Pauer, Brian Fowlkes; (Bottom Row) Josh Warn, Ruth Ann Church

Allen Leibowitz, Roastmaster at Zingerman’s Coffee Company, gives top notch training on the 2 group Rancilio Classe 10 machine.

Using a ‘meal team’ approach, volunteering to host Connections time is now much less burdensome – and much more fun! The Connections food and hot drinks teams are made up of one team leader and 2-4 other members. Each Sunday, one food/cold drinks team and one hot drinks/smoothies team is at work to host Connections time. There are about six food/cold drinks teams and six hot drinks/smoothie teams. The teams rotate the schedule so that each team takes its “turn” every six weeks. This means that each team is hosting only 7-8 times during the church year. Each time a team hosts, the same set of 3 – 4 people are getting together to do their familiar jobs that serve the church. This creates a way to get to know a few other FUMC members and feel “known” and “connected” in the midst of our large congregation.

Would you like to get to know a few more adults or youth in the church a little better, without making an overwhelming commitment of time? Would you like to volunteer in a way that's fun and easy? Joining a Connections team means you’ll host the social hour (coffee OR food, not both) just 7 - 8 times during the year with the same set of folks each time. One hour on Sunday mornings. Get to know someone – be part of Connections!

If you are interested in the hot drinks/smoothie teams, contact Ruth Ann Church, by phone 717-6278, or via email, ruth.church@sbcglobal.net. For food/cold drinks teams, contact Rev. Joanne Bartelt, 662-4536, joanne@fumc-a2.org.

Fair Trade vs. Unfair Trade

The WORLD PEACE CAFÉ promotes educating northern consumers about the coffee trade. With knowledge, we can make progress towards justice.

- Unfair Trade: The global coffee industry earns $60 billion annually. Coffee farmers earn as little as 4¢ a pound for the coffee they pick by hand.

- Fair Trade: The Fair Trade label indicates a coffee cooperative was paid 26¢ above the standard “C” price for commodity green coffee, and 41¢ above the world standard price for organic coffee.

- Beyond Fair Trade: While an important, progressive step, the Fair Trade label is only a self-reported label, not 3^rd party certified and does not ensure a living wage for farmers. Many coffee buyers go beyond fair trade, pay higher than fair trade prices to farmers and create long-term sustainable relationships where both sides mutually benefit. Unfortunately, identifying these coffees in the store is not very easy yet. One of the goals of the World Peace Café is to introduce the best of these coffees to consumers at FUMC. We call this kind of coffee “DIRECT TRADE” coffee.

 

Thanks to World Peace Café Contributors

Connections time and especially the World Peace Café launch has required the contributions of so many. Please join the committee in sending a huge “THANK YOU” to the following individuals and community businesses.

 

• Zingerman’s Coffee Company, Ann Arbor
• GN Communications, Ann Arbor (Gail Nicklowtiz)
• Moon Winks Café , 5151 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor
• Espresso 4 Seasons, Perrysburg, OH
• David Church Carpentry
• All the FUMC staff
• FUMC Leadership Council and Trustees