After nearly 6 years of supporting Fair Trade work around the world, Cross Culture Market will close its doors in late April. The shop is one program of Hope Full Life Center Inc., which also runs Helping Harvest, a food assistance program, Gracefully Chic Boutique and Peace of Home, our thrift stores, and the Linda Civill Community Garden all out of Faith Plaza in Ravena, NY.
Hope Full Life Center’s Board of Directors has been monitoring Cross Culture Market’s progress for two years and didn’t feel the program was growing at a satisfactory pace or advancing the charity’s overall mission despite countless hours of hard work on the part of staff and volunteers. The Board decided in early February that the time had come to close Cross Culture Market and rethink our international efforts.
We are so proud of all Cross Culture Market has achieved. We supported more than 25 very worthy ministries and humanitarian organizations around the world. In fact, Hope Full Life Center purchased nearly $40,000 in Fair Trade merchandise as our contribution to creating safe, fairly-compensated employment opportunities for very vulnerable people in developing nations.
The staff and volunteers at Cross Culture Market also learned so much about Fair Trade practices, e-commerce, inventory management, marketing and countless other skill sets we know we’ll utilize elsewhere at Hope Full Life Center.
I recently told our staff and volunteers that mediocrity isn’t in God’s DNA and it’s not in Hope Full Life Center’s either. He has bigger and better plans for this charity. After some prayer and research we hope to create another international program that will truly support Hope Full Life Center’s mission to give people a helping hand, not a hand out.
It’s been an honor to serve alongside our many vendors. They are such faithful, passionate champions of Fair Trade. We pray for God’s continued blessing on the work they do to give hope and dignity to poor and vulnerable people.
It’s also been a pleasure serving our many customers. We loved sharing the beautiful products and wonderful stories about the ministries and people we helped all over the world.