Who Likes Coffee?

I like coffee! And so do most adult Americans. While the purist devotees of social responsibility drink only intensely scrutinized fair trade, most of us find ourselves at Starbuck's at least a couple of times a month. (I think they do have some fair trade options, but not all their coffee is fair trade.)

Which is why, if you find yourself at the little green oasis any time soon, you should invest in a RED card. Sold alongside the rest of the merchandise, it is a red credit card-looking thing that you can load up with whatever amount you want, and then every time you use it to buy a drink, five cents is donated to support AIDS-fighting measures in Africa. Your drink doesn't cost anything extra, and the card itself doesn't cost anything. And you can reload it as many times as you want. The project has already "generated contributions equaling more than 7,000,000 days of medicine," according to its website. I don't know how many people that is, but that's a lot of medicine.

You might be one of those people that has a guilty feeling that you should be doing volunteer work in Africa instead of watching game shows, or you might think "gee, I really should have signed that petition." That's a lot of us. This is a simple, fairly effortless way to enjoy what money can buy while doing something for others.