Could Skipton win the race to be the first town to declare Fairtrade status since Yorkshire became a Fairtrade Region?

There has certainly been plenty of Fairtrade activity in the town and Liz Roodhouse, Chair of Fairtrade Skipton, is confident that status is not far away.

The Chair of Craven District Council, Odeh, Manal and Skipton Fairtrade supporters.

During Fairtrade Fortnight, the town played host to Palestinian Fairtrade olive farmers, Manal and Odeh, from the Zaytoun cooperative.  They were welcomed by Chris Harbron, the Chair of Craven District Council.

Fairtrade Skipton encouraged supporters to sell Fairtrade rice as part of Just Trading‘s rice challenge.  Quakers in the town put on a delicious Fairtrade lunch using the rice.

Skipton schools have been hard at work to spread the message of Fairtrade.  Skipton Girls High School has recently been declared a Fairtrade School and Ermysted’s Grammar School were visited by Manal and Odeh.

The Palestinian visitors took a school assembly and also took part in a discussion with some Year 7 and sixth form students.  Liz Roodhouse commented “It was a very successful morning and I was staggered by the quality and range of questions raised by the Year 7 students in particular.”

Fairtrade Skipton have worked closely with the Craven Development Education Centre which is based in St. Andrew’s Church Hall in Skipton.

Fairtrade Yorkshire wish Skipton all the very best and this is one race that we will be watching very closely.  Go Skipton!

During Fairtrade Fortnight Holmfirth based business fairandfunky teamed up with The Co-operative Pioneer to host exclusive workshops with schools and shoppers.

The focus of this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight campaign for 2013 was food, and the challenge from The Fairtrade Foundation was to get creative with Fairtrade packaging. So fairandfunky did.

During the fairandfunky schools workshops, over 60 children were taken Fairtrade Sleuthing around the supermarket, before creating Fairtrade Super Hero masks from recycled Fairtrade packaging.

Children were treated to delicious Fairtrade fruit and as they tucked in they learnt that they have the power to change the world by buying and eating Fairtrade fruit. They are Fairtrade super heroes.

The children were then invited to draw round their hand and cut it out to decorate the giant Fairtrade farmer. This they loved, and many returned later in the week to find their hand, tell their parents, and then go shopping for Fairtrade products.

The invitation to “lend a hand” continued in two drop in workshops for every day shoppers, which included local MP Jason McCartney. The result: a GIANT Fairtrade farmer.

The workshops were possible thanks to funding from the West Yorkshire Co-operative Area Committee.

fairandfunky is a local Community Interest Company Co-founded by Helen Robinson and Sophie Bebb. Empowering people to take little steps to change the world, fairandfunky delivers interactive and creative workshops on global themes to schools and community groups. They also sell fair and funky products at www.fairandfunky.com.

Creative youngsters at St. John’s church in Ben Rhydding have made their contribution to ‘altar’ the way we trade.

Challenged by the Fairtrade Foundation to use Fairtrade packaging to create works of art, the children of Ben Rhydding designed and created this beautiful altar cloth.

Worshippers at the church will be reminded of the need for fairness and justice in trade.

Well done to the St. John’s youth group for all their hard work and creativity.

The Fairtrade Foundation is part of the nationwide Enough Food For Everyone – IF campaign

This food justice campaign seeks to make the changes necessary so that no one need suffer from hunger.

In the past month, thousands of IF campaigners across the country have been visiting their MP’s to lobby for food justice.

Majimcha and Jenny with Julian Sturdy MP

Food campaigners Majimcha and Jenny visited their MP, Julian Sturdy, who represents York Outer.  They called at his surgery at Monks Cross on the edge of York.

IF campaigners were pleased to see the Government stand by its international commitment on international development aid levels.  This is vital if we are to eradicate hunger, but of course, there are many countries that need to be persuaded to honour their commitment as the UK has done.

Majimcha and Jenny spoke to Julian about transparency regarding tax arrangements for multi national companies.  The world’s poorest countries lose out on tax revenue due to sophisticated avoidance schemes employed by many wealthy corporations.

The UK is hosting the G8 summit in June this year, so our government has a real opportunity to change international policies to benefit the poor and hungry, including changes to the international tax system.

Fairtrade Keighley is the latest Fairtrade Town campaign in the Region.  The Chair of the campaign, Richard Dillon, stated that he was inspired by Yorkshire’s successful campaign to be the UK’s first Fairtrade Region.  He is now pulling out all the stops to make sure that Keighley joins the growing ranks of Yorkshire Fairtrade Towns.

Richard Dillon (with bottle of Zaytoun olive oil) with olive farmers and Keighley dignitaries

Richard plans for the campaign to work closely with the town’s retailers and help promote Keighley town centre as a shopping destination.  Fairtrade Keighley has received strong support from the Cooperative in the area.

Fairtrade Fortnight was a great success in Keighley with the highlight being a breakfast meeting with a talk from Fairtrade olive farmers, Manal and Odeh from Palestine cooperative, Zaytoun.

There was also a screening of the Fairtrade movie, Black Gold, which gives a fascinating insight into the coffee trade.  This took place in Central Hall with the assistance of Keighley Film Club.

A packed Central Hall for the olive growers’ talk.

Email us if you would like more information on the exciting Fairtrade Keighley campaign.

The Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP called into the Cooperative store in Castleford to meet with Cynthia Dickinson from Fairtrade Wakefield.

Cynthia Dickinson presents Fairtrade rice to Yvette Cooper.

Cynthia talked to Yvette about this year’s Fairtrade theme – go further for Fairtrade

Yvette was presented with a bag of delicious Fairtrade rice which she said she would look forward to eating with her husband, the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls.

This Fairtrade Fortnight, Zaytoun Olive farmers, Manal Abdallah and Abu Rafat (AKA. Odeh), toured Yorkshire to talk about how Fairtrade has made a difference to their livelihoods.

Richard of Fairtrade Keighley, Manal and Odeh.

They brought with them some stunning images of 2,000-year-old olive trees and farming life in Palestine.

Fairtrade has made a huge difference to them – all exports from Palestine have to go through checks and transfers imposed by Israel, which rendered it extremely difficult to export until the Fairtrade movement stepped in to help trade to take place.

Now they can not only export olives and olive oil, but couscous, sun-dried tomatoes and other foodstuffs.

These are often produced by the women of a family, which improves their standing and also brings in a second source of income.

Read the rest of this entry »

The University of Leeds marked Fairtrade Fortnight with a special day of celebrations which included a Fairtrade and Craft Fair in the Parkinson Building.

Manal and Odeh, Zaytoun olive farmers from Palestine, visited the Fair and gave  a presentation.

Manal, Hilary (who sells Zaytoun products in the UK) and Odeh at the University of Leeds Fair.

The University of Leeds is proud of its Fairtrade University status.  Conferences and catering manager, Bev Kenny, goes out of her way to ensure that the university supplies Fairtrade products to its students, staff and visitors.

The university is an excellent example of a community coming together, to do what it can, to ensure that producers in poor countries get a fair deal.  So much so, that the University of Leeds was chosen by Fairtrade Yorkshire as our regional flagship employer.

York shoppers were treated to the soulful sounds of Access To Music students at the City’s annual Fair Trade Market on Friday 8th March.

The varied programme put together by the students sent shoppers feet tapping and a few hips swaying.

Margot Brown of Fairtrade York commented that the set was a great asset to the Market and raised many smiles on a day of cold, grey weather.  The students were true professionals and the show went on throughout the rain.

Find out more about Access to Music.  They have courses for those who want to work in the music industry, at several sites across the UK.

Twin Fairtrade towns Malton and Norton have enjoyed a successful Fairtrade Fortnight.  Alison Hardwick and her hardworking team of stalwarts have been joined by Guardian blogger, Janice Gwilliam.  Together they helped organise a Fair Trade craft fair at the Friends Meeting House in Greengate.  A wide range of Fairtrade crafts were on sale alongside crafts produced by local artists and craftsfolk.

Janice Gwilliam of Fairtrade Malton and Norton with Fairtrade Yorkshire’s Mark Dawson.

Mark Dawson, Coordinator of Fairtrade Yorkshire commented; “I am delighted that Fairtrade Malton and Norton are doing so well.  I was born in a village close to Malton, so I am always keen to hear about what is taking place in the area to help Fairtrade producers across the globe.”