April 5th Trafficking Awareness Event

On April 5th, I was a part of a human trafficking awareness event at the Manadarin United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Fl.  The event was organized by Nancy Rushton, the President of the Mandarin United Methodist women.  Nancy has been doing so many things to educate the Methodist Women about trafficking and modern-day slavery!

Here is the table that I set up for this event.  I baked brownies and I created a new cookie recipe, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.  I planned on making my signature cookie, Delightful Oatmeal Cookie, but I ran out of AP flour and I forgot to buy raisins!  I ended up using whole wheat flour instead and they came out really good!!  I also had samples of the Fair Trade ingredients that I use, set up on the table.  Of course all of my ingredients are organic!
There were a lot of other tables set up by various organizations that are operating in Northeast Florida.

 My friend Robin Rossmanith had a table set up for her website, Shop To Stop Slavery.  Her website is an awesome resource for consumers to find products that are ethically produced and slave-free.  You can find things from sports equipment to jewelry on her site.  It is really helpful for holiday shopping ideas!

 Reading For Awareness is a book club that Nancy has started as a way to engage the members of the community and raise awareness about slavery.

 These are a few of the books that were there.  Gary Haugen from International Justice Mission and David Batstone from Not For Sale wrote several of the books in this selection.

City Rescue Mission is located in Jacksonville and they focus on helping the homeless get off of the streets and get their lives in order.  The homeless are the most vulnerable for being trafficked into slave labor and sex-trafficking.

 Jacksonville has a Refugee Services Program through DCF, the Division of Children and Families.  This service helps victims of trafficking receive the help they need to stay in the country, if they are foreigners and they help survivors locate services to help them become contributing members of society, from medical care, to housing, and jobs.

 World Relief Jacksonville works with DCF and other government agencies to provide refugees and survivors of trafficking with various services.  World Relief in a world-wide agency that does some amazing things to help those oppressed by others.

I didn't get a picture of the Made By Survivors table :-( but Sarah Symons, Executive Director and Founder set up a table as well.  Made By Survivors provides women in India and elsewhere around the world the opportunity to be gainfully employed and learn a trade in order to provide for their families.  This gives these women a chance to get out of the cycle of poverty and out of a life in brothels and red light districts.

 Last but certainly not least is Transitions Global.  Seth Johnson, their Jacksonville Advocacy Director, set up this table.  Transitions provides aftercare to girls rescued from trafficking in Cambodia.  They also provide support and a template for other organizations that establish aftercare facilities in other countries.  They do amazing work and have a very high success rate for rehabilitating these children from the pain and suffering they endured in the sex slave trade.

I didn't get a picture of the guest speaker, Crystal Freed.  She is a lawyer here in Jacksonville and a integral part of the Northeast Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, NFHTTF.  She is an effective communicator about the plight of sex-trafficking victims.  She participates in speaking engagements around the city of Jacksonville and she works tirelessly to inform and educate others about being vigilant and observant to what is going on around them.  Crystal encourages the community to work together to protect children from predators and to spread the word about trafficking. Here is a news story about Crystal and the NFHTTF

I feel honored to have been invited to share in this event.  The people that are a part of this community of abolitionists here in Jacksonville are awesome and inspiring.  There are other organizations that were not represented there but they are all doing some amazing work!

Remember, together we can make a difference!

What are sugar beets?

I'd never heard of sugar beets until a few months ago but apparently they are genetically modified and already on the market.  I came across this story today...which is quite shocking...

Federal Court Finds USDA Broke The Law In Allowing Planting Of Genetically Engineered Sugar Beets

The USDA, according to the article, allowed the planting of GM sugar beets without running the appropriate testing for them to prove that they are safe for humans to eat and that they won't damage the environment.  These sugar beets have already been introduced commercially and Americans have been eating this "sugar" without knowing it.  Since GM foods are not required to be labeled, how can we avoid eating them?  Buy pure cane sugar, but make it Fair Trade cane sugar.  It's so amazing to me that yes we can avoid gmo's but if it's not Fair Trade Certified it is most likely harvested by slaves!  Did you know that gmo's are banned in Europe?  Most Americans don't even know what a GMO is!  Crazy!  

I've been thinking...

I was thinking about how much my perspective has changed from 3 years ago.  Back then, I never would have wondered about where sugar or coffee comes from.  I believed the pictures on the packages of the happy farmer, the pristine landscapes, and the overall good feelings that come from those thoughtful marketing execs and their misleading slogans/jingles.  In reality, so many products come from the hands of slaves and forced laborers.

I started thinking about how through time, man has enslaved others to get stuff done.  I've read about how the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians to get those pyramids built.  I have ancestors that were slaves here in America.  The British were in the slavery business as well as most European nations.  The thing is, I always thought of slavery as something that happened a long time ago, way before I was born.  Slavery was something that was archaic and was only to be read about in history books because no one would enslave others now, right?

Another thing that has changed from 3 years ago is buying organic food.  I wasn't really sure what the difference between conventional and organic products were back then.  Every time I bake cookies now, I make sure the sugar I buy is Fair Trade/organic sugar.  Children and adult slaves are used to harvest sugar, coffee, chocolate, and cotton, just to name a few.  Child slaves are used in fields to harvest food and in factories to make toys, clothes, and other textiles.  When I buy my children toys, I never used to think, hey maybe a child slave made that toy. Maybe a child worked 10 hours in one day, with little food, no safety procedures, on little to no pay so this toy could entertain my kids.

I've read all about how slaves were beaten and mistreated and either not paid or paid as little as possible, in the history books.  It's crazy to think that people are still being treated in this way so that I can bake some cookies or put toys under the tree at Christmas.  So, yes organic products are a little more expensive and yes cooking from scratch is time-consuming but cutting back on some things to help someone else in the world have a better life is worth the sacrifice.  My kids are learning that just because the package makes a product look wonderful, doesn't mean that it is.  The story behind the product is what is important.  I am teaching them how to care about the world around them, that things aren't always as they seem and not to judge a book by it's cover.  If organic shopping can do that much for my kids, imagine what changes can take place in the world if everyone decided to make a change and demand products free from slave labor.