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Metro Justice holds Alternative Fair for local holiday shopping

Holiday Shopping with a conscience is the theme for Metro Justice’s Alternative Fair. The event, thrown by the grassroots organization, takes place the first weekend of December and has been showcasing local small businesses since the early eighties.

Andrew Thomas is the Fundraising and Membership Director for Metro Justice.

He says the annual fundraiser supports the local economy and organizations that share similar values.

“Metro Justice has been a community organization in Rochester since 1965, Fighting for racial justice and economic equality. So that’s sort of imbued in everything we do with the Alternative Fair. We try to like a have wide array of crafts and vendors, we also have tables for different community organizations that we are aligned with.”

He says the organization has been promoting small business holiday shopping decades before there was a Small Business Saturday.

“It allows for us to build like a homegrown economy where we take care of each other. Where our capital and our resources are not taken elsewhere. We have an opportunity to care for each other and to hold one another accountable in a small local context. And that’s why I think small businesses are important to a community.”

This weekend marks the 36th year for the event.