During Fairtrade Fortnight, Maltby Academy students held a bake off competition to raise awareness of Fairtrade issues and help raise money for the Fairtrade Foundation. 

Five of the winning students presented Councillor Ken Wyatt of Fairtrade Rotherham with a cheque for £107.55.  Cllr. Wyatt talked to the students about the work of the Fairtrade Foundation and Yorkshire’s role as the UK’s first Fairtrade Region.

Aimeth (centre) with Ian and Judy at Fair Grounds.

Sheffield has gained a dedicated Fair Trade shop in the shape of Fair Grounds at 195 Whitham Road, close to the University and hospital.

Fair Grounds sells a wide range of Fairtrade foodstuffs and fairly traded crafts,  toys, jewellery and accessories.

The new shop opened just in time for Fairtrade Fortnight and the visit of Columbian banana farmer, Aimeth Angulo, who enjoyed a long browse and a chat with staff members, Ian and Judy.

Fair Grounds website

Fair Grounds on Facebook

Postcode: S10 2SN

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.

Tom (left) and Aimeth (third from right) with staff and students at Oasis Academy.

Fairtrade Yorkshire covers the Yorkshire and Humber Region and hence we support, not only Yorkshire folk in the promotion of the Fair Trade cause, but also the good people of northern Lincolnshire who live on the south bank of the Humber.  Fairtrade hotspot in this area is the town of Immingham which has an active campaign to gain Fairtrade status.  During Fairtrade Fortnight, Columbian banana farmer, Aimeth Angulo visited the town to support the campaign.

Tom Horton of Fairtrade Immingham spoke of Aimeth’s visit to the town’s Oasis Academy:

“Our students and staff thoroughly enjoyed meeting Aimeth – everyone noted her warmth and kindness. We managed to visit a number of classes who had prepared questions in advance for Aimeth, she delivered her presentation to a group of Year 8 students, toured the academy and had refreshments with those who she had been unable to meet. I have no doubt that the experience of meeting a Fairtrade producer will support our work throughout the town’s campaign and I’m quietly confident that sales of Fairtrade bananas will have gone through the roof!!! “

You can find out more about the Immingham campaign by checking out Facebook and the You Tube video below:

Facebook: Immingham Fairtrade Initiative

You Tube video

Ken Wyatt shows off Fairtrade beers.

Rotherham Real Ale & Music Festival was held at MAGNA on 5^th – 8^th March, coinciding with Fairtrade Fortnight.

Ken Wyatt of Fairtrade Rotherham, who is also one of the organisers of the festival, made sure that there were Fairtrade beers available for South Yorkshire drinkers to enjoy.

The festival is regarded as one of the best in the UK and supports a number of local good causes.

All who help run, set-up, take down and administer the festival are volunteers; making it one of the largest volunteer run events in the region.

Church Warden, Clive House, Development Officer,Louise O’Brien and Vicar, Rev Paul Shackerley.

Senior staff at Doncaster Minster expressed their support for Fairtrade Doncaster.  The Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is very active in its promotion of Fairtrade and towards the end of 2013 a new Fairtrade Borough Steering Group was set up to support work with businesses, schools, Doncaster College, faith and community groups.

Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire, Mark Dawson, met with the Vicar of the Minster, Paul Shackerley, and members of his team, to discuss the role of the churches and Fairtrade in Doncaster Borough.

Mark commented ‘It was great to meet the team at the Minster which plays a strong role in the life of the town.  Fairtrade  Doncaster has gone from strength to strength and it is always a pleasure to visit the town.  It is important that Fairtrade has a strong presence here, not least because Doncaster is such a significant retail “hotspot.”

Aimeth at work

Aimeth Angulo, a Colombian producer of Fairtrade bananas, will be touring Yorkshire during Fairtrade Fortnight (24th February to 9th March) to tell of the difference Fairtrade has made to her life and to her community.

Aimeth will be visiting schools, universities and community groups during the tour.  She will also be attending the following events which are open to all members of the public.  Do come along and meet her.

The full line-up of Aimeth’s events is below – don’t forgot to check the events page for other events taking place across Yorkshire during Fairtrade Fortnight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Adam Gardner, of the Fairtrade Foundation, and Karen Palframan, of Fairtrade Yorkshire, promoting the fair banana.

During Fairtrade Fortnight (24th February to 9th March) a banana farmer from Colombia will be touring Yorkshire to promote the Fairtrade Foundation’s Stick With Foncho campaign, to make bananas fair.

Aimeth Alicia Fernandez Angulo is from the cooperative ASOBANARCOOP.  She is a manager of the cooperative as well as being a smallholder farmer herself.  She will be crossing the region to tell Yorkshire folk about life for banana farmers and how Fairtrade can make a difference.  She will be encouraging us to act to make all bananas fair.

Aimeth will be kept busy during the tour visiting the following locations:

Bradford, Cherry Burton, Harrogate, Hebden Bridge, Holmfirth, Hull, Immingham, Keighley, Leeds, Malton, Sheffield, Skipton, Thornton and York.

She will be attending a wide range of events including: school, university, church and community activities, and public meetings and city centre stalls, where you will get a chance to meet her.

Fairtrade Fortnight this year is from 24th February to 9th March and the theme this year is Make Bananas Fair.

We love bananas – in fact they’re our favourite fruit. In the UK alone we eat over five billion a year.

In the last 10 years, the UK supermarket sector has almost halved the shelf price of loose bananas while the cost of producing them has doubled, trapping many of the farmers and workers who grow them in a cycle of poverty.
Does that sound fair to you?

Our campaign aims to transform the banana industry. We want to make bananas fair. This means that every banana farmer and worker earns enough to have a decent standard of living, works in conditions that are safe and has rights and benefits. It also means bananas are produces in a way that is environmentally sustainable too.

More than 1.2 billion Fairtrade bananas are now sold in the UK each year. That’s one in every three bananas we buy.

Fairtrade provides a vital safety net for banana farmers and workers.  The Fairtrade safety net is the minimum price that farmers get to cover the costs of sustainable production, and a premium on top of this which they choose to invest either in community projects or in their business.

Fairtrade alone is not enough to end the price wars. We have to go further to ensure the price we pay for our bananas is sustainable, so that the whole industry can be made fair for farmers and workers.

Colombian banana farmer, Foncho.

Foncho is a banana farmer from Cienaga in Colombia.  This Fairtrade Fortnight, he’s coming to the UK and he’s on a mission to make bananas fair.

Before Foncho’s co-operative Coobafrio was certified as Fairtrade, Foncho often struggled to make ends meet – it was a hard life.

But since becoming Fairtrade, Foncho receives a fair price for his bananas, which means he can afford to care for his loved ones and send his daughter to college.

We need to act now so that all banana farmers and workers get a fair deal.

This Fairtrade Fortnight Stick with Foncho to make bananas fair.

The third annual Yorkshire Schools Fair Trade conference has won praise for motivating and encouraging schools in their raising of awareness of global trade issues.  The Lord Mayor of York and representatives of the Cooperative, and local businesses, praised the varied and exciting programme that had been put together by the event organisers: the Centre for Global Education, York St. John University and the York Fair Trade Forum.

The Sheriff’s Lady, the Sheriff of York and the Lord Mayor of York arrive at the conference.

Helen and Sophie of the business ‘Fair and Funky’,
praised the conference.

Excellent presentations were given by Riccall Primary School, Cawood Primary School and York’s Bootham School.  Workshops took place on topics ranging from Fairtrade honey, to the price of a T-shirt role play.  The event concluded when the Lord Mayor of York presented the Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Awards and the Global Teacher Awards.

Tockwith School were one of the winners of the Fairtrade in Yorkshire School Awards and their pupils were clearly delighted.  The Church of England primary school are Eco Warriors and have been a Green Flag school for over four years.  Focus on Fairtrade is one of the five areas that Eco Warriors concentrate upon in Years four and five.

Tockwith School pupils.

Tom with competition judge, Juliana Mensah, Artist in Residence, Centre for Applied Human Rights.

Tom Haygarth, a student at York’s Fulford School,  has won a literary competition with his short story ‘Behind the Bars’. The tale looks at the lives of those who produce cocoa in West Africa.  It is an accessible and entertaining read, written in a confident and mature style; a well deserved winner.

Fulford School students with the book ‘Chocolate Factory’.

The competition was organised by the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, and by Amnesty International; its theme was chocolate and Human Rights.  Tom’s, and other winning stories, have been collected in a book ‘Chocolate Factory’, which is published by Stairwell Books.