Some of our older news items
AGM 2010
The BOROUGH OF SCARBOROUGH FAIRTRADE GROUP held its 2010 Annual General Meeting in the Education Centre of St Catherine's Hospice, Throxenby Lane, Scarborough on Tuesday 8th June.
Which, put formally, might sound deadly dull! But in fact it was a great opportunity to hear how well we're doing! And to look forward to doing more!
And to enjoy locally-made organic bread, Yorkshire cheeses and Fairtrade coffees. All AGMs should be as good as this!
BYE BYE, DIANE: HELLO, COMMITTEE!
WE DECIDED to make some amendments to our Constitution (available on request) following the retirement of our Chairman, Diane Robinson. We now have a Committee of up to ten members who will undertake between them the many tasks needed, e.g. admin and treasurer, liaison with media, churches, schools and the Council and so on, while working together further to develop awareness and uptake of Fairtrade in the Borough. We hope this new structure will be more streamlined and enable us to continue the volume of work which Diane coordinated during her term as Chairman.
PLANS FOR 2010/2011
We set ourselves five priority tasks for the coming year:
- Complete and publish the revised Directory
- Present Fairtrade to Parish Councils via the area forums
- Encourage Workplace involvement
- Become more visible
- Schools certificate
This is already underway. A number of schools find it difficult and time-consuming to fulfil the full formal criteria laid down by the Fairtrade Foundation to become a Fairtrade School. So we are offering a 'certificate of merit' to recognise schools which are actively working towards that status.
Latest news!
Fairtrade Borough certificate renewed!
We have just heard that our application to renew our Fairtrade Borough certificate - the application went in last August - had been approved! So well done to everybody and congratulations! This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and well worth celebrating!
But success like this can mean a winding down, a sense that we need a rest, and this was well described by a correspondent who wrote in the Ethical Superstore community Blog:
Fair Trade or not Fair Trade?
You will no doubt have heard of, and probably experienced compassion fatigue. You know the symptoms - arranging a day's holiday for the date of Children in Need or Comic Relief; busily texting as you walk past the Big Issue seller; never having any change in your pocket; writing off sponsored abseils and runs as publicity stunts... and then a tsunami causes devastation in Asia, an earthquake creates tragedy in Haiti and our compassion is reawakened.
We respond, we give, we care.
At the moment, I think I am guilty of fair trade fatigue. I used to be passionate about fair trade. I would only drink fairtrade tea and fairtrade coffee. I would buy every fair trade product the supermarket had on offer. I could explain the benefits of fair trade to anyone who would listen. But then the fair trade waters became muddied by promises and pledges such as "responsibly produced" and "ethically sourced" and it was easy to become complacent. Cadbury's launched their own fair trade Dairy Milk, Starbucks switched to fair trade coffee and it was easy to believe that what I was doing was not necessary any more.
From there, it doesn't take long to slip into thinking that Fairtrade products are more expensive, less easily available and not necessarily the family's first choice. Now that the battle is seemingly nearly won, maybe I can give up the fight.
But then I was reminded that Fair Trade Fortnight (22nd February-7th March) is nearly upon us again. It brought me up short. It reminded me of all the producers across the world who have benefited and continue to benefit from working under fair trade conditions. For them, this is not an ethical concept that can be picked up and dropped on a whim. This is reality. The reality of hospitals, schools, safe housing, health centres, clean water, community projects. This is commitment.
Commitment from the producers to work hard and produce the best. Commitment from the consumers, too, to keep supporting fair trade.
Does any of this strike a chord with you? Is it time for you, too, to challenge your fair trade fatigue?
Fellow Fairtraders of Scarborough: what do you think?
Our national award!
We were awarded £500 as national winners of the Most Imaginative Campaign for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009! with the schools poster competition.
In this picture by Moe Kafer, Ruth Fairchild, our treasurer, receives the award from (L to R) George Alagiah, BBC presenter and Fairtrade campaigner; Andrea Wilkinson of Shared Interest Foundation; and Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, at the Fairtrade Supporter Conference in London on 10 October.
We were told,
'The judges were impressed with the original twist that you gave your poster competition and the way that you linked it to World Fair Trade Day later in the year. You got a huge number of young people involved through inviting them to participate in the competition and then displaying the posters in outlets for people to vote on. We thought this was a really clever idea and one that other groups would take inspiration from.'
Thank you to all who took part and contributed in any way to this event.
A campaign group by any other name...!
We want to affirm that we are working within a Borough context and to that end we have decided to change the name of the group from The Scarborough Fairtrade Action group to The Borough of Scarborough Fairtrade Group.
Please watch the website for updates and let us have your thoughts, comments and ideas.
Thank you for your continued support
New Council flower bed for Fairtrade in Scarborough
The Council have now planted a new Fairtrade flower bed.
Chairman Diane Robinson writes:
"The flower bed is situated at the end of Valley Road, on the bank on the right as you approach, from Trinity Road, the roundabout at the junction of Valley Rd with Vernon Road and Ramshill Rd. Driving or walking down Valley Road you can't miss it and I think it will probably also be visible to walkers crossing Valley Bridge and possibly from the town end of the Spa Bridge (Please let me know if you try it out!). There were always going to be problems with the colours, but the symbol is recognisable and the wording FAIRTRADE is very readable, so I think the parks dept have done a fantastic job for us and should be congratulated.
Congratulations, indeed! And our grateful thanks to the Council for their continuing support!
Certificate of Merit
Scarborough Fairtrade Action Group has pioneered Certificates of Merit for folk whose contribution to the Fairtrade Scarborough campaign merits recognition. One of the first was made to Ros O'Toole...
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Chairman Diane Robinson writes:
I made the presentation to Ros O'Toole during St Mary's, Cloughton, 'Big Brew' Coffee morning, held in the garden of the Vicarage (YO13 0AB) on Sat 6th June. St Mary's presented Ros with flowers and on behalf of the Action Group I presented a Certificate of Merit and on behalf of Traidcraft I presented a card signed by the Fair Trader Team which read 'A huge Thank-You on behalf of everyone at Traidcraft and all our producers, for your hard work and dedication over 20 years.' and a gift of fairly traded silver jewellery (a bracelet and matching earrings which Ros is wearing in the 2nd photo, unfortunately you can only see the earrings). I understand that Ros started her Traidcraft stall at St Mary's in December 1989 and over the years has also supplied stalls at the Friends' Meeting House, Harwood Dale, St Joseph's, St Mark's and Ayton Methodist Churches. She has also found willing volunteers to continue her work and officially 'handed over', as Fairtrader at St Mary's to Mrs Helen Sadler, who is pictured with Ros in the 2nd photo.
Incidentally, Traidcraft as an organisation celebrates its 30th Birthday this year and describes itself as 'Traidcraft fights poverty through trade, helping people in developing countries to transform their lives. Established in 1979 as a Christian response to poverty, it is the UK's leading fair trade organisation. Traidcraft runs development programmes in some of the poorest countries in the world, and campaigns in the UK and internationally to bring about trade justice.'
Some new outlets, some new products, and an invitation?
We reglarly meet in Westborough Methodist Church coffee lounge on the first Tuesday of every month. Everyone is welcome to join us and to share their thoughts, ideas and information about Fairtrade in the Borough
As well as adding two new outlets to our directory (The Glass House Coffee Bistro, and Boundary Cottage Bakery at Burniston), we heard from Chris & Ruth Fairchild about new products available in Fairchilds' green shop: spices from Malawi Kitchen and Chris's new favourite tea - Qi teas!
And we welcomed Chris Taylor from Freeset Bags, suppliers of bags made with fair trade jute.
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Schools 'design a poster' competition for
World Fairtrade Day May 9th 2009
Our thanks go to all those who took part in this competition. There were lots of really good ideas and we had a hard task selecting the 28 designs for the Poster Trail from the 102 entries received. There were some great slogans amongst the art work and we will be using them in the future! All those who entered have clearly got a good grasp of what Fairtrade is all about and should be congratulated.
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The winners are:
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The 28 laminated posters will now be going 'on tour' to Whitby for public display. Please watch the web site for further details. The posters can also be seen here |
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Certificates of merit were awarded to Barrowcliff Junior, East Whitby, Fylingdales, Lealholm, Newby and Scalby Primary Schools and St Columba Brownies, who were all represented amongst the 28 designs selected for the Poster Trail during Fairtrade Fortnight. A copy of the poster bearing the winning design is being circulated to all schools, to churches and to retail outlets for display throughout the borough.
Grateful thanks go to Oxfam and Café View (Scarborough) for donated prizes.
Diane J Robinson
Chairperson Scarborough Fairtrade Action Group
Thanks for a great Fairtrade Fortnight!
There were lots of great events in the Borough for Fairtrade Fortnight and we really seem to be spreading the message widely! From coffee mornings to pancake lunches - all Fairtrade ingredients, of course! - and schools and others 'going bananas' to help beat a world record!
You can see some examples of what we've been doing this year on this special photo page!
Cadbury's - now even more to share!
Wonderful news for lovers of Fairtrade chocolate : Cadbury's Dairy Milk is going Fairtrade!
Cadbury is to become the first mass-market chocolate brand to adopt the Fairtrade certification mark. Although Fairtrade sales have been running at record highs, rising 47 per cent last year to £700m, most sales to date have come from specialist Fairtrade companies, such as Divine Chocolate or Traidcraft, or from supermarket chains' own-label coffee, tea and sugar. This move by Cadbury's shows clearly the rising importance of ethical credentials to big business despite consumers becoming choosier in how they spend their money in the current recession.
Harriet Lamb, the chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, said Cadbury's move, which represents £200m in retail sales, would "throw down the gauntlet" to other big chocolate manufacturers. "It's an iconic British brand . . . This does really set the pace for the mainstream industry."
And it means there's even more to share for the Ghanaian farmers whose exports of Fairtrade cocoa will be tripled by this move by Cadbury's.