Fairtrade Fortnight around the county

17•03•2010

Fairtrade Fortnight was held between 23 February and 3 March and there were events all over the county. You can see the list of events hosted by Wiltshire Fairade Coalition members by downloading the document below. In addition to those listed there were talks at many local schools and Devizes Fairtrade Group planned a competition for schools too.

Devizes

Around 400 people flocked in to the Corn Exchange last Saturday, encouraged by two walking Fairtrade bananas, to browse the wide variety of Fairtrade products on sale at the various stalls, to watch the Fashion Shows and enjoy the cakes made with Fairtrade ingredients with their Fairtrade coffee or tea. Matthew Smith from BBC Wiltshire Radio compered the first fashion show when Miss Swindon, the 6th formers from Devizes School and the local ladies who volunteered to model, showed off the different styles of Fairtrade clothes available from the mail order companies People Tree, Gossypium and Kind Hearts Clothing - a local company producing handmade clothes - and also from Bishopston Trading which has a shop in Bradford on Avon. The models wore jewellery from the Fairsilver stall and carried handbags from Hatti Trading’s stall.

Trade was brisk at the stalls. As well as jewellery and handbags, crafts could be bought from Love Zimbabwe, musical instruments from Waden Hill Trading; Traidcraft stalls were selling food and crafts and Plush Chocolates, Oxfam and the India Shop from Marlborough were there. Many people especially children enjoyed the Chocolate Fountain.

Free samples of Starbucks coffee, Visionary soap beauty products and the Co-operative’s orange juice and cakes were available. About 70 people signed up to say they had made a swap to fairtrade products as part of the Fairtrade Foundation challenge

The county is gearing up to apply for Fairtrade County status and these events demonstrate the breadth of interest in fairly traded goods. Swindon Fairtrade Coalition held a stall at the Co-operative store during the fortnight.

To find out more about Fairtrade follow the link to the Fairtrade Foundation website

Download File 1