Yorkshire’s roster of Fairtrade Towns is set for a new addition as Settle sets out on the path towards Fairtrade Town status.

Settle: Trading the Trainers

Starting this year, as part of ACE (Action on Climate Emergency, Settle) food group, several events were organised for Fairtrade Fortnight.  There were two at Settle Primary School. The founding father of the Fair Trade Town movement, Bruce Crowther led a chocolate making session with Year 3 and Liz Roodhouse, from Craven Development Education Centre, worked with Year 5 and 6 pupils using a ‘Trading the Trainers’ game. St John’s Methodist Church raised funds through a coffee morning and the church Eco-Explorers (4–11yrs) learnt about Fairtrade during their afternoon session.

And sorting out the beans (with Bruce Crowther)

So far, the Fairtrade Settle campaign has received support from the Town Council, all of the churches, the Quaker Meeting House and the Library.

As there are many events already held annually in Settle it makes sense to join those rather than create too many new ones. For example, every year from July to September there is a Flowerpot Festival and the Fairtrade Settle supporters are going to enter a display as part of this.  In the Autumn there is Settle Stories, this year the theme is Climate Justice and ACE will be in attendance.  The Fairtrade Foundation’s leaflet on Climate Justice fits nicely into that.

Find out more about the fair investment organisation, Shared Interest

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Christ Church Key Stage 1

In Craven, this year’s annual competition for schools was sponsored by Namaste-UK, the Skipton company that specialises in fairly traded clothing, accessories, unusual gifts, furniture and home furnishings mostly from Nepal, India, Thailand and Indonesia. Inspired by items made for Namaste using repurposed sari silk, children created bunting, banners, bags, scrunches, cushions and a quilt from left over fabrics, pre-loved garments, curtains and bedding and even discarded medical scrubs.

Lothersdale School

All the Key Stage 1 children at Christ Church School, Skipton, carefully chose fabrics to bring the greeting ‘namaste’ alive. “We had lots of fun designing, choosing materials and creating the letters for the sign” said Miss Garland, the Year 2 teacher. At Lothersdale School, the sewing group made bunting and used it at their Fairtrade coffee morning in the village hall.

A six year old boy, with a little help from his mum made a bag using one of his mum’s old jumpers that he couldn’t bear to see being thrown away. There was  a cushion made from a little brother’s Babygro too.

The upcycled bag

The competition provided an opportunity to link Fair Trade with the need to look after the environment and cut down on waste, and work in partnership with a local company supporting marginalised small producers.

The Lothersdale school council (and some additional Year 5s) created a fabulous Fairtrade team this year and joined forces with Christ Church to hold a village coffee morning on Tuesday 14th March. What a fabulous turn out we had! Thank you to the children and parents who donated the delicious cakes and bakes to sell. During the coffee morning, the children from school spoke really clearly and confidently to adults from the community about what Fairtrade is and why it is so important to buy Fairtrade items. A big recognition goes to Jack A, whose Fairtrade passion and knowledge impressed lot of members of the public. A huge thank you to, Laila, Isabelle and Harry who excelled at selling squares to a game and congratulations to Stephen Cohen for winning the grand prize of your Fairtrade socks – we hope they keep you toasty warm and no more holes.

A new addition to the coffee morning this year, was the hugely successful tombola. Thank you to Fairtrade Yorkshire who donated £50 to Lothersdale Primary School so we were able to run this properly. The tombola was filled Fairtrade items from the CO-OP, Tesco, Aldi and items donated by ‘From the source’ in Skipton. The tombola raised £45 in total which will be donated towards Fairtrade charities.

A huge part of the coffee morning is connecting with the community, and we are really appreciative to Liz Roodhouse who joins us each year to promote her fairly traded items. On offer were a range of Fairtrade items including Easter eggs, socks and purses.