Will you buy a stranger a fair trade coffee this Friday?

Want to be part of a social experiment that helps lift people who grow coffee out of poverty across Asia and the Pacific (actually, worldwide) - and all you have to do is buy a stranger a coffee?

Here's the deal: You to go to your favourite local fair trade cafe, and buy a coffee. Then - and this is the weird bit - you buy a coffee for the next person, and ask the barista to tell them that a stranger bought them a coffee because it's fair trade. Would they like to buy a coffee for the next person?

Let's be honest: a lot of people forget about fair trade these days. But if a stranger buys you a free fair trade coffee, you'll remember it, and you'll beway more likely to buy fair trade from then on, right?

I'm sure we don't need to tell a Kiwi who cares about extreme poverty like you about how incredible fair trade is for people. Being paid a fair, guaranteed price for their coffee beans changes people's lives. 

We know this can be epic. Three years ago, in one cafe, an enormous 240 people bought the stranger after them a fair trade coffee.

That's 240 - wait, 241 - people who've been reminded about how fair trade changes lives at just one cafe, and rewarded for choosing fair trade. 241 people. Just one cafe.

Our volunteers will be starting it off at fair trade cafes around the University of Auckland, and our friends at the OUSA - Otago University Students' Association will be doing the same around Otago University. If you head along to a cafe on campus in Auckland or Dunedin, you might just get a free coffee from a stranger.

But there's no reason to stop there. What's your local? Just head along to your favourite fair trade cafe and buy coffee for a stranger.

Let's do this thing.