Fairtradeleeds.org.uk

World Fairtrade Day is on Saturday 9th May 2020. It is an opportunity to celebrate Fairtrade in our small corner of the world. It couldn’t be easier to do. There are such delicious treats easily available to buy, and we know, everytime we choose to buy with the Fairtrade mark, a farmer and his or her family will benefit. Here’s a reminder of sources still open from business at this time of lock down

All major supermarkets have some items with the Fairtrade mark – do look out for them. I find that the Cooperative stores and Marks and Spencers have the biggest variety, but do let us know if you know of other stores with a wide variety of Fairtrade stuff.

Also, Traidcraft http://www.traidcraft.co.uk, have a great catalogue and are selling online.

Our Schools’ Celebration in the Civic Hall on Friday 13th March

We all had a great time at our Celebration for Schools’ in the Civic Hall on Friday 13th March. Here are some girls making beads with Nina from “Fair Grounds” which sells Fairly traded jewellery from a women’s group in Mexico. The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Eileen Taylor, gave out the certificates to children who had designed a workshop. She also received the latest certification of Fairtrade for the City of Leeds.

Fairtrade Fortnight events are going on all over the region.

NORTH YORKSHIRE

27 February – 6pm – SOFA SESSION Spurriergate Centre, York. This is our flagship event for Fairtrade Fortnight 2020.

Speakers include: Cocoa farmer Rosine Bekoin, Rachael Maskell, York Central MP, Sarah Wakefield, Food Sustainability Manager, Co-op, Sophi Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate, Sophie Jewett of York Cocoa House and the Fairtrade Foundation’s Julia Nicoara, Director of Public Engagement.

22 February – 10-1 BIG BREW St Edmunds Church, Leeds

7 March – 10.30-1.30 COFFEE MORNING Methodist Centre, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

19 March – 11-3.30 FAIR TRADE FAIR Leeds University

Our competition is to make a design to go on a T shirt that shows how good Fairtrade is for the farmers. The competition is for young people between 7 and 14 years old.

The design must be on one side of A4 paper. It can be words only such as a slogan or a rhyme, or a drawing in ink or felt tips or a painting.

The Leeds Fairtrade Group  will choose the 10 best designs and the winners will receive an organic, Fairtrade T shirt in their size with their design printed on it.

On the back of the entry please put the young person’s name, age and T shirt size. Please choose from 7/8, 9/10, 11/13, and 13/14. We are sourcing the T shirts from http://www.cottonroots.co.uk  Please add the leader’s name, name of youth group and contact details, including the leader’s address.

All the designs must be sent in by Saturday 1st February 2020 to

Joan Machin, 26 Carr Hill Drive, Calverley, Pudsey LS28 5QA

To hear farmers telling their own stories, go onto Fairtrade.org.uk/schools/resources/films.

If you have any queries, please contact Joan at joan.machin@ntlworld.com 

We’re sure you all know about the benefits that Fairtrade brings to the farmers who grow our food in developing countries. Now that the climate is changing, the farmers are finding it more difficult to grow their crops, like bananas, coffee and cocoa beans. They are having to deal with floods and droughts and crop diseases that they haven’t come across before. By having a good price for their crops and a premium (extra money) that they can spend in their communities, the farmers are being helped to overcome these difficulties. That’s why it’s more important than ever for people to buy Fairtrade goods.

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