Inside Level Ground Trading

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with one of the co-founders of Level Ground Trading, Stacey Towes, a cheerful and enthusiastic man who has dedicated his life to making a difference. A leading advocate for Fair Trade practices, he explains his company’s goal as “A desire for a sustainable response to hard working, small –scale farmers who are marginalized from the global economy. We wanted to alleviate poverty without doing charity.”

Level Ground works to create jobs, provide education, and instill hope into more and more impoverished communities. His company carries products from all over the globe including coffee, sugar and dried fruit from South America and Africa, tea from India, and recently vanilla from Uganda and coconut oil from the Philippines.

The company began in 1997 with four families who wanted to work together and make a difference in the lives of small-scale farmers. They had little experience with coffee or fair trade, but their business partner and now company CEO, Hugo, had spent his summers growing up among the coffee farmers of Colombia. By bringing steady and reliable jobs to the table, along with health care and the promise of education for the children of the farmers they work with, Level Ground set a high standard for companies seeking to bring products into the North American market.

This continues to be the norm today, with over 5000 small-scale farming families being paid for their harvests each year. The impact of the company “…has surpassed my expectations and provided me a greater sense of fulfillment than I would have imagined.”

Level Ground’s impact isn’t just overseas; they’ve also travelled extensively throughout North America, spreading the message of sustainable farming and fair trade. “We’ve stuck with our mission since inception– trading fairly and directly with small-scale farmers in developing countries. I believe that despite the growth of Fair Trade we’ve seen over recent years, the essence of what we do neither popular nor well understood.”

Fair Trade has been around as a concept since World War II, but only really started to take root in the thoughts of North Americans in the 1960’s. Only the past two decades have people truly started making an effort to change how we do business.

“So in this way [we] still see ourselves as pioneers. Now, with the steady addition of food products beyond coffee, I believe that we are accomplishing something else unique to stretch peoples’ notion of what we’re all about.”

Level Ground has also dedicated itself to supporting their local community and the environment. Each of their employees is paid extra to allow for environmentally friendly methods of commuting each day.

“In the course of a year there are more than 100 non-profit groups which we partner with in some way. It may be something as simple as a $30 donation of product to a micro-credit or supplying all 3,000+ servings of coffee and supplies to 18 food vendors at the Saanich Fair.”

Our interview closed with a request for advice for any future entrepreneurs seeking to make their own impact on the world.

"Do what you love and stick with it. If you are passionate there is potential. Take time to build relationships and to strategize so that you have both the people resources and the system to grow and realize your dream."

Buy Level Ground products now from our Victoria location!