A greener Valentine’s Day

Look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent for your valen­tines this year? Global Vil­lage Col­lec­tion in down­town Delaware, the non­profit Fair Trade retailer, has some unique offer­ings — all served with a side of social jus­tice. Pur­chas­ing fairly-traded items ben­e­fits not just your sweet­ies, but also those try­ing to make a liv­ing and improve their communities.

One of my favorites is the cards and mini organic dark choco­lates from Equal Exchange. There are 24 cards and treats for $9.95. What a cool treat for the kids to give their classmates.

Other items include 100 per­cent hand-felted nat­ural wool hearts from Heart Feltz ($4.50); a wide vari­ety of choco­lates and sweet treats from Grocer’s Daugh­ter out of Michi­gan, all made with organic and nat­ural ingre­di­ents (prices vary); small choco­late hearts and cups from Fair Trade Organ­ics for only 85 cents each; cards hand­made in Rwanda out of recy­cled paper by Cards from Africa ($4.25); organic Mama and Baby But­ter (Shea but­ter) for $19.95 and organic cot­ton heart socks and scarves by Maggie’s (prices vary).

This is not to men­tion the beau­ti­ful array of jew­elry, sculp­tures made from Kisi stone from Kenya, and the Swazi Secrets line of per­sonal care prod­ucts. Then there are the purses, the clothes, the food prod­ucts, the children’s items … this col­umn isn’t big enough to spec­ify all the won­ders you will dis­cover when you visit GVC in their new loca­tion next to Bee­hive Books in down­town Delaware. Don’t for­get to scope out their Clear­ance Cor­ner while you are there.

Make Valentine’s Day mean­ing­ful for you and your fam­ily this year by try­ing some­thing dif­fer­ent: shop the local shops; eat locally; vol­un­teer some­where; give a gift that counts — just try not to get sucked into the vor­tex of the tra­di­tional mate­ri­al­is­tic retail hoopla. It’s not easy, I know, but you can do it.

Tues­day Trip­pier lives in Delaware, is a writer and mother of four and has a spe­cial inter­est in green living.

Posted by Tuesday Trippier on Feb 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.