An Unusual Rewards Card  .

The GIVE TO FREE card allows our customer to:

þ  Earn store credit for shopping here ($5 for every $300 spent)

þ  Receive 20% OFF all produce on Sundays

þ  Receive a 10% Senior Citizen (65+) discount on Wednesdays

þ  Participate in the effort to abolish modern slavery

 Below is a letter from the owner about our unique program.  Following the letter is a professionally produced two minute documentary about our efforts.

Dear Terra Organica / Bargainica shopper,

In shopping here you have chosen to support a vision that links farmers, food artisans, our employees, our customers and many others in a quest for nourishment, healing, and sustainable commerce.  We have implemented the GIVE TO FREE program as a means to support our core values and to give our customers a worthwhile reward for shopping here.  

The GIVE TO FREE card is part of the GIVE TO FREE program.  This program was started by Terra Organica and Bargainica as a way to raise awareness and do something about the estimated 27 million people (mostly women and children) who currently live as slaves.  A portion of your purchases will go to a nonprofit group whose goal is to eliminate slavery. 

We have chosen to partner with the Washington, D.C. based group, Free the Slaves.  This group was founded in the year 2000 with the sole mission of freeing slaves, helping them to remain free, and permanently ending slavery worldwide.  Free the Slaves has become a recognized leader in the movement, and is often called upon by businesses, the US State Department, the United Nations, the World Bank and various national governments to help in their efforts to eradicate slavery.  Free the Slaves also works directly with people “on the ground” in various countries around the world in order to support their efforts to free slaves and end slavery. 

At least 90% of the monies we raise through the GIVE TO FREE program goes directly to Free the Slaves.  The remainder is spent locally to educate our community about modern slavery, to develop further funding mechanisms, and to help root out and eliminate slavery in Whatcom and Skagit counties.

Every dollar you spend at Terra Organica or Bargainica will earn one point.  For every 300 points you earn, you will receive a $5 credit toward a future purchase in our store and we will donate $2 to the abolitionist effort. 

This means that you could give $2 to help free slaves for every $300 you spend in our store. According to the US census, the average family of four spends over $5,000 per year in groceries.  With the GIVE TO FREE card, that could add up to an annual contribution of $33.  Think of this multiplied by the thousands of people who shop at Terra Organica and Bargainica – it adds up to a lot of money.

What does freedom cost?  According to Free the Slaves, in India $132 pays for a raid to free child slaves; $94 provides the former child slave a year of specialized education and helps prevent trafficking in their home villages.   In Ghana, it costs $92 per child to rescue a group of child slaves in the fishing industry, and $174 to provide a family the means to start a small-scale business and thus help prevent children from being re-enslaved.   Funds raised in the GIVE TO FREE program will help with costs like these that free people permanently from slavery and help communities form the economic and educational foundations to resist further trafficking. 

Ultimately, that’s what inspired the GIVE TO FREE program – the opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone who is suffering today – to give them the gift of what you have in this very moment – the freedom to choose what to do next, the ownership of your own labor, and to live without the constant threat of violence.  Today.  Now.  Even while you eat well.  Indeed, because you eat well.

Sincerely,

Stephen Trinkaus

Owner & General Manager

Terra Organica / Bargainica

You can sign up for a GIVE TO FREE card by talking to any cashier or clerk in our store.

Here’s the video!