Fairtrade Yorkshire

Talented young artists in Rotherham celebrated the borough’s Fairtrade commitment this month.

On Tuesday May 21st, at Rotherham Town Hall, pupils from across Rotherham’s schools were presented with prizes by the Mayor and Mayoress of Rotherham, Coun. John and Mrs. Kath Foden.

Organised for a second year by the Rotherham Fairtrade Steering Group, pupils at schools across the Borough were invited to submit posters that conveyed the Fairtrade message. The winners and runners-up were presented with prizes and gifts and will see their designs displayed in the John Smith Room in the Town Hall.

Coun. Ken Wyatt, Chair of the Fairtrade Steering Group, praised the youngsters for taking part. “We had around 100 entries and they were really impressive. The youngsters had obviously give the whole Fairtrade campaign a lot of thought and consequently me and my fellow judges had a very hard task in choosing the winning entries.”

Rotherham became an accredited Fairtrade Town in 2006. The accreditation acknowledged that Fairtrade is now an integral part of both the authority and the wider Rotherham community, giving ethically-minded shoppers much more opportunity to use and buy Fairtrade goods.

Oakworth Primary School where the first tree of the Fairtrade orchard was created on 15th May

Keighley is the latest town in Yorkshire working to achieve Fairtrade Town status. This comes after Yorkshire was declared the very first Fairtrade Region earlier this year.

Involving schools is key to a successful application for Fairtrade Town Status so Fairtrade Keighley has teamed up with Yorkshire based businesses fairandfunky and Small World to deliver an innovative new project: “Fairtrade Orchard”; across schools in Keighley.

fairandfunky (www.fairandfunky.com) is a Community Interest Company; empowering people to take little steps to change the world, through interactive and creative workshops on global themes to schools and community groups.

The project began on Saturday May 4^th at Small World where members of the community are invited to join in a fairandfunky workshop: creating 6 trees from recycled materials.

Small World, based at 20 Russell Street, provides grass roots, participatory arts; bringing communities together through a variety of inclusive projects with young people from all over Keighley: www.smallworldkeighley.org

These trees will form the basis of the Fairtrade Orchard which will then be adorned with leaves, animals, plants and flowers in 5 schools across Keighley in the following weeks; culminating in a community event at The Airedale Shopping Centre in June.

During the schools workshops, fairandfunky will lead interactive discussions on Fairtrade issues and celebrate the work done by The Fairtrade Foundation to get a wide variety of Fairtrade products across the UK. Helen Robinson from fairandfunky said: “In our workshops children will learn about Fairtrade and the people involved in supply chains and will be encouraged to think about the world around them, all whilst being involved in creating something really special for the people of Keighley to be proud of!”

The 6 trees will come together to create a Fairtrade Orchard representing olive, banana, coffee, tea, lemon and cocoa farmers; and was inspired by the visit to Keighley of Palestinian Olive farmers during Fairtrade Fortnight. The orchard will be at The Bingley Show in July.

“This project will connect schools and businesses to Fairtrade,” said Richard Dillon, chair of the Fairtrade Keighley Steering Group, “It will showcase the commitment of Keighley to Fairtrade and enable us all to make positive actions right on our doorstep.”

The workshops have been made possible thanks to funding from the West Yorkshire Co-operative Area Committee; and the Keighley Town Council Oak Fund.

The Folk Festival stall of Fair Trade gifts.

Supporters in the twin towns have been busy in the past month with a flurry of Fairtrade activity.  Fairtrade Malton and Norton set up an attractive Fair Trade stall at the Blue Ball pub in Malton as part of the Malton and Norton Folk Festival.  There was singing and dancing at the Blue Ball during the day.  The group then took the stall to Suddaby’s for the evening folk concert.

The impressive window display in Malton town centre.

Fairtrade Malton and Norton also set up a display in the window of House Martins, a day nursery in Malton town centre.  This advertised their stall at St Michael’s church on Saturday May 18th during the Malton Fine Food Festival.  The group sold coffee, tea and cakes made with Fairtrade ingredients at the event.

Karen Palframan (second on the right) and Cheska Hull (third on the right) join in the handover at Number 10. Credit: Matt Crossick (Fairtrade Foundation)

Karen Palframan, of Fairtrade Bradford and Ilkley, was there at the big handover of the Make Trade Fair petition at number 10 Downing Street on 9th May.

Campaigners, including the “Made In Chelsea” star, Cheska Hull, handed in two petitions containing 75,000 signatures from Fairtrade campaigners and members of the Co-operative.  The petitions call on the UK government to use the G8 summit to support smallholder farmers, to feed the world fairly and sustainably.  Together with the Enough Food For Everyone IF Campaign, this action has a strong chance of bringing about change in the way food is produced and distributed.

Join the IF campaigners in London on June 8th to remind David Cameron to urge the G8 to reform our broken food system.  We need real change so that no one need go hungry.

Check out the handover on You Tube.

Dear Fairtrade Campaigner,

The Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Yorkshire are delighted to invite you to the Yorkshire Fairtrade Campaigner Forum on 22 June in Leeds. Join other Fairtrade campaigners from the region to:

• Hear the latest Fairtrade news 
• Be inspired and informed through speakers and workshops 
• Discuss the future of the Fairtrade campaign in Yorkshire and the UK
• Elect a Yorkshire representative for the Fairtrade Foundation’s National Campaigner Committee.

Yorkshire Fairtrade Campaigner Forum details

Saturday 22 June 10am – 4pm

University House, University of Leeds, LS2 9JS

Lunch will be provided – please inform us of any dietary requirements upon registering. 

Register today to reserve your free place.

The United Nations Millenium development goals were set to be achieved by 2015.

As the deadline approaches, the UN is discussing what sort of framework should be in place beyond 2015.

The Fairtrade Foundation is joining the global Fair Trade movement in calling for a future international development framework that supports concrete means to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.  This should include a fairer world trade system enabling the poorest communities to work their way out of poverty.

Thousands of local leaders across the globe have been contacted by Fair Trade supporters to sign the Fairtrade Beyond 2015 Declaration.

Councillor Linsay Cunningham-Cross and James Alexander, Leader of City of York Council, as he signs the Beyond 2015 declaration.

Councillor Cunningham-Cross, the Fairtrade Councillor in York, was eager to get behind the campaign.  She said:

“I have asked the Leader of City of York Council to sign this pledge and make an important statement about global development and the role York as a city can play in that.  We want a development framework that enables small producers in poorer countries to trade their way out of poverty, a truly sustainable form of development.

It is important that York looks beyond its own boundary in making a contribution to Fair Trade and ethical global development, and this pledge is an important part of that contribution”.

Find out more here:

Fairtrade Beyond 2015

Many congratulations to Ireland Wood Primary School in Leeds who are the worthy winners of the Fairtrade Yorkshire Film competition of 2013.

See below for the videos from all the finalists including champions Ireland Wood.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is your chance to see the Fair Trade story told in this short video.  “For a few Pesos more” is produced by BAFTS (the British Association of Fair Trade shops).

Penistone Scouts are teaming up with fairandfunky for World Fairtrade Day in a timely Fairtrade workshop.

“Time for Fairtrade” gets children and young people talking about Fairtrade and food: from growers and producers to the kitchen table. In this popular fairandfunky workshop children find out about Fairtrade issues, and discover how they can take little steps to change the world.

Following role play and discussion the scouts will each create their own clock using recycled materials to take away. To show it is “Time for Fairtrade”; and share the message of Fairtrade.

For more information about fairandfunky and their interactive workshops head to www.fairandfunky.com

 Chair of Fairtrade Bradford and Fairtrade Ilkley, Karen Palframan, will be heading to Downing Street on May 9th to hand in the mini marchers’ petition to David Cameron.  She will be able to speak to him about the need for global policies to support small scale farmers.

Karen Palframan – all set for Downing Street

An early signatory to the petition, Mrs Palframan was herself represented by a paper mini marcher and has been invited by the Fairtrade Foundation to join the delegation meeting the Prime Minister.

“I am really honoured to have been asked to do this”, she said, “and never dreamt that my support for the ‘Make Food Fair’ campaign would lead me to Downing Street. Our voices can be heard and hopefully we can influence powerful decision makers. Food and hunger are on the G8 agenda, and we must ensure that the farmers providing our food are not going hungry themselves”.

Mrs Palframan added, “Let’s unite and make our voices heard even more loudly then they were during the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign in 2005. I would ask you to sign the ‘Make Food Fair’ petition and also to buy products with the Fairtrade logo as these guarantee a fair deal for farmers”.