Creamy Spinach Dip opens in a new tab
Crisp, refreshing bell peppers can really spruce up spring dishes. When you buy Whole Trade® bell peppers from Mexico, you’re also helping to make tangible improvements in real people’s lives!
Each time you buy a Whole Trade product opens in a new tab, a portion of what you paid goes into a development fund for the community that produced it. The farmers and farmworkers then determine how to use those funds to meet the needs of their community.
Whole Foods Market sources Whole Trade bell peppers from DiveMex in Culiacán, Mexico. To date, your Whole Trade pepper purchases have raised more than $337,000 in community development funds, and workers at DiveMex have voted to invest community development funds in a variety of projects:
On-site preschool for children of farmworkers
On-site health and dental clinic
Housing
Scholarships for farmworkers and their children
Alejandra García (right) in her classroom.
The Garcia family is a great illustration of how fair trade impacts real peoples’ lives. Miguel Garcia is a member of the security team at Divemex. His oldest daughter, Alejandra, is in eleventh grade and maintains an 8.3 grade average (out of a possible 10). For the past three years, she has received a scholarship from the farm’s fair trade community development funds.
Miguel’s younger daughter, Angela, initially struggled to meet the grade requirements for the scholarship program. However, inspired by Alejandra’s example, Angela has now raised her grades to an average of 8 and has been able to receive a scholarship.
“The scholarship program has motivated me to push myself in my studies, improve my grades and strive toward a bachelor’s degree at a university,” Angela says.
Have you purchased Whole Trade bell peppers before? Tell us how you used them — and help inspire others to improve lives with every purchase!
