SFAC Fair Trade Holiday Gifts in the News

Shopping for a Change has been featured over the past week in a number of magazines' holiday sections. These magazines have selected SFAC products to showcase for their readers for Christmas Holiday shopping, and we’re proud to be in them.

Men’s Fitness, a very popular magazine dedicated to men’s performance health and personal training and nutrition, runs a section each year called The Ultimate Gift Guide for Mom. Our fair trade kitchenware item Teak Regtangular Bread and Cheese Board made the cut for being one the best gifts to buy for mom (or for a man in or out of training). Check out the show piece here. 

And Bay Area Parent, a local SF Bay Area magazine popular with new and veteran parents, included some of our infants’ and kids’ items and mentioned our home décor in a piece called Holiday Gifts With a Local Twist.

Both articles appreciated the fact that we are nonprofit, meaning more of your purchase goes to helping the artisans and their communities.

There’s still plenty of time to shop for Holiday Christmas Hanukkah fair trade stocking stuffers and larger gifts. We suggest you visit our FairTrade Accessories Collection with its many great choices, or go to our fabulous Jewelry Collection. And many are on sale at our Holiday Bargain Sale Selections.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC Launches 2nd Annual Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign

Here at SFAC we have much to be thankful for in this Thanksgiving Week. We’ve just launched our 2^nd annual crowdfunding drive on Indiegogo to raise funds to continue and expand our nonprofit work that is profoundly benefitting so many. As of this week we now work with 50 plus artisan groups who craft the beautiful products on our site in villages and urban settings (we make sure they are environmentally friendly work places) in 28 countries. All together, we touch the lives of 43,000 artisans, an astonishing number. And you, our valued shoppers and donors, make this all possible. So, we’re very thankful to you. As SAFC is nonprofit, much more of the income that comes in from buying our fair trade items goes to the artisans and community improvement projects.

Please visit our crowdfunding page at Indiegogo here (hot link) and we ask you to give as much as you can. There are some nice perks available for you. In 2015 our product sales will finance 2500 pairs of eyeglasses to worldwide artisans—a project in partnership with the well regarded nonprofit VisionSpring.

We’ve got a lot of Holiday Christmas fair trade stocking stuffers and larger gifts, so please visit or Fair Trade AccessoriesCollection, or our Cases Collection. And many are on sale at our HolidayDiscount Collection.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC and the Power of Sustainable Fashion

“Sustainable fashion” has become a buzzword in the world of popular eco green and fair trade culture. It’s a good term that has been adopted from the whole principle of sustainablility. Its meaning for fair trade (and how it applies to Shopping for a Change) is multiple: apparel and accessories manufactured from organic, naturally dyed materials; made by workers receiving a living wage and working in safe and environmentally friendly working conditions; and high quality garments or accessories designed to last a very long time.

Our intention here at SFAC as we continue to stock our shelves with new items and restock our current items is to make sure that all of our items are sustainable in the full sense of the concept as it applies to fair trade cottage industry items. We’re proud to be on the bandwagon of sustainability. As a nonprofit (meaning we can give more from our shoppers’ purchasing) we are an important contributor to the sustainability of the village or community our artisans live in.

If you’re looking for Holiday Christmas fair trade stocking stuffers, please visit our cases collection and our accessories collection. You’ll find perfect, affordable items, and may are on sale.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Shopping for a Change Stacey Horowitz on SF Bay Area News

Make a Difference Day is the most supported community service day on the national calendar. It takes place every year on October 24th and was begun in 1992 by USA Weekend magazine and is now organized and sponsored by USA Today.

As part of Make a Difference Day last week Stacey Horowitz (founder of Shopping for a Change) appeared on SF Bay Area local news channel KTVU to talk about making a difference and to present on air a number of the popular fair trade products carried by SFAC. In the interview she talked about SFAC being nonprofit and helping thousands of women in 28 different countries with over 50 artisan groups. And she described the many fine features of the items presented.

Please visit this link to see her interview and presentation: 

You can join us in making a difference over many days of the year by shopping and buying fair trade holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah and others)gifts. Stop by for great gifts ideas. Take a look at our jewelry (hot link) or accessories pages for the perfect handmade, fair trade, eco friendly presents. We also have many items on sale here.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Three Benefits of Fair Trade Month, October 2015

October is a big month for public awareness: Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Non-GMO Month, World Food Day, International Day of Rural Women and there is, of course, National Cat Day. It was also Fair Trade Month, a month long celebration of awareness, information sharing, and opportunities for all expressions of fair trade. Jenna Larson wrote a piece just a few days ago on how Fair Trade Month helps everybody.

1.)  Fair Trade Month is the time to spread the word about who and where our products come from, and learning more about what fair trade is and means.

2.)  Fair trade products are more accessible than ever.  They started off as coffee in 1998. Now, you can find Fair Trade fruit, vegetables, flowers, sugar, cocoa, tea, coffee, spices, grains, sports balls, apparel, home decor, coconut (and coconut water), seafood and many other products from over 1,000 different companies.

3.)  The impetus, ideas and tools of Fair Trade Month don’t end on October 31st. It continues on for the rest of the year and beyond in our personal commitments and lives.

As you’re undoubtedly aware, the holiday shopping season is coming up fast. We invite you to shop in our Accessories selections 

where you’ll find some of our exceptional items to buy online. Our selections are curated by our returning shoppers so we know what is popular. Also, take a few minutes to look at our Jewelry collection (hot link). All are perfect for Christmas, Hanukkah and all other December festivities.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

What Truly Makes Fair Trade Fair

In today’s fair trade public debate world (October 2015 is Fair Trade Month)—which is evolving into a significant market share for cash crops and cottage industry products—there’s now a growing discussion on what really constitutes fair trade. There are always those who take advantage of market opportunities to cut environmental corners, to not provide for the employees as should be done, and other shortcomings. Among the top four qualifications for true fair trade are: fair working conditions, fair pay, safely structured buildings and worker empowerment. And there is also a distinction between “ethical fashion” and “fair trade.” The understanding for “ethical fashion” is loose and doesn’t necessarily cover all the life-assisting expectations for fair trade artisan workers. Fifty five percent of Americans understand what fair trade means (according to a recent survey), which means that they are looking for fashion, accessories, home décor, clothing, and baby items that are truly fair trade. Here at Shopping for a Change, all of our artisan vendors surpass fair trade guidelines.

We have some lovely, exciting new products appearing in our Accessories collection, and it’s not too early to start thinking about Holiday shopping. Please go to our Clearance Sale page to browse through all our on-sale items that you can purchase early for Christmas, Hanukkah and all holiday celebrations.

Enjoy your shopping with us, and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

October is Fair Trade Month 2015 and Why Buy Fair Trade Site

Here we are in October 2015, the month that is being promoted and celebrated around the globe as Fair Trade Month. Cottage industry manufactures and growers in over 80 countries are joining with fair trade distributors, retailers and nonprofit advocate institutions to exponentially grow awareness of and commitment to fair trade buying.

Over 1.8 million fair trade farmers and artisans are now involved in this sea change market movement. This includes food crops and products, fashion items and home goods. This means 1.8 million individuals are being paid fairly for their work and are able to enjoy a living (even thriving) wage and good working conditions, livelihood protection and participating in eco friendly policies.

To quickly understand how your purchasing of fair trade products helps, please visit this Buy Fair Be Fair site. There’s a wonderful graphic that depicts the virtuous circle created from buying fair trade from whatever community you live in.

As we move into the Fall season, we’d like to share with you the beautiful, exciting new items we’ve added to our fair trade accessories. Lots of purses, cases, scarves, belts and more to choose from—for yourself or as gifts to others.

Enjoy your shopping with us and be sure to like us on Facebook and recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.