The next Gedling Fairtrade Group meeting will be on Monday 11th May at 7.30pm at Gedling Civic Centre.

If you would like to get involved or just to find out more, do come along to the meeting.

If you have any queries or comments then please get in touch.

See below for a map to the venue.
Visit the Gedling Borough Council website for bus routes and directions.

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The Fairtrade Fashion Show held during Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 was a great success and enjoyed by all.

Here are some photographs from the evening:

The Gedling Fairtrade Group Display

The Redhill School swing band.

Fashion models showing the beautiful Fairtrade clothes

Lovely clothes and accessories on sale at the event – supplied by Fair2All

Yummy cakes, cookies and flapjacks for sale made with Fairtrade ingredients

Oxfam volunteers and stall selling gorgeous Fairtrade jewellery

Traidcraft stall selling Fairtrade food, chocolates and gifts.

Gedling Fairtrade Group would like to thank the following for their support and participation:

Students and Staff of Redhill School
Mandy Macintosh of Fair2All
The Cooperative
Students from Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art and Design
All of our volunteer models and helpers
Traidcraft
Oxfam
Harrison’s Cafe & Bistro
The Health Store in Mapperley
Petina

To celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 the Gedling Fairtrade Group are holding a fabulous Fairtrade fashion show.

The show takes place on Wednesday 4th March at Redhill Comprehensive School. Doors open at 7.30pm and start time is 8.00pm

You can pay on the door or buy tickets from various local outlets at £2 for adults and £1 for concessions. The outlets are:

• The Health Store, 21 Plains Road, Mapperley
• Oxfam, Front Street, Arnold
• Harrison’s Cafe and Bistro, Main Street, Gedling
• Redhill School, Redhill Road Arnold.

Come along and see the beautiful Fairtrade clothing with a chance to buy after the show! Browse the Fairtrade stalls and enjoy the live music too.

Please note that cash only will be accepted on the night.

If you would like to help spread the word about the fashion show please feel free to download our poster to display in your building or pass on to friends.
Download the Fairtrade Fashion Show poster

We will look forward to seeing you there!

This event is being sponsored by The Cooperative.

Come along to Arnold Civic Centre on Wednesday 12th November , 7.30pm to share ideas for activities for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009.

This is an informal meeting open to anyone with an interest in Fairtrade and who may want to do something during this fortnight at their business, workplace, school, church or community group. There will be Fairtrade wine and beer as well soft drinks for us to enjoy whilst we share ideas for a really successful fortnight.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, which takes place from Monday 23rd February to Saturday 7th March, is a time for us to get involved and raise awareness of Fairtrade. There will be activities and events happening up and down the UK and it will be a great opportunity for you to help raise awareness among the residents of Gedling and show how you support Fairtrade in our borough.

Activities could be as simple as giving a fairtrade leaflet to customers and work colleagues or as ambitious as a glamorous Fairtrade fashion show or Fairtrade roadshow with free Fairtrade chocolate tasting. I’m sure you’ll have lots more ideas so come along and tell us about them.

Even if you cannot make the meeting on 12th November, please keep us informed of any planned activities and we will publicise them here on our website for everyone to see.

With your help we can make Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 in Gedling an event to remember!

We’ll look forward to seeing you there.

The Gedling Fairtrade Group ran a Fairtrade stall at the Gedling Show on Sunday 31st August.

The Co-operative, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrison’s donated some of the Fairtrade items they currently have on sale: tea, coffee, drinking chocolate, chocolate, sugar, rice, honey, jam, biscuits, wine, oranges, pineapple, apples, pears, bananas, mango, T-shirts.  We were able to make an impressive display which attracted a lot of attention and gave us the chance to talk to members of the public about Fairtrade in general and what is available to local people doing their weekly shop.

We had a short questionnaire asking how much each person knew about Fairtrade  and whether they regularly purchase Fairtrade goods.  We completed 70 questionnaires during the day.  Since we usually talked to couples or to family groups, we talked to more than 200 people during the show.  At the end of the day, from the box of completed questionnaires, we pulled out two and shared the goods on display between them.  The winners were Cheryl Jones of Basford and Linda Gallagher of Carlton, who were delighted to receive their prizes.

The results showed that most people recognise the Fairtrade Mark and an increasing number are buying Fairtrade goods regularly.  86% of people recognised the Mark and most were aware of the meaning of Fairtrade.   More than half could think of between two and five Fairtrade items and more than a quarter mentioned six or more.  28% bought one Fairtrade item regularly (usually tea, coffee, chocolate or bananas), 37% bought between two and five items and 9% bought more than five items regularly.

Spotting the Mayor of Gedling, Councillor Richard Goodwin, on a tour of the Craft tent, one of our volunteers seized the chance to go through the questionnaire with him.  We were delighted to discover that he buys between two and five Fairtrade items on a regular basis, setting an excellent example to the residents of Gedling Borough!

A big congratulations goes out to Susan Elwood of Sherwood who won the bag of Fairtrade goodies from our Arnold Carnival prize draw!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey and prize draw and and an even bigger thank you to all of you who support Fairtrade.

Here’s a picture of Susan receiving her prize:

The Gedling Fairtrade Group joined in the celebrations at Arnold Carnival this weekend to raise awareness about Fairtrade and our campaign to gain Fairtrade Town Status for Gedling Borough.

There were Fairtrade goods on display, information available and delicious Fairtrade chocolate to sample.

We also conducted a short survey with our stall visitors to find out how much the residents of Gedling Borough know about Fairtrade. Although we haven’t yet collated the results it was encouraging to learn that lots of people are aware of Fairtrade, how it benefits producers and how many products they buy on a regular basis.

Those who helped us with our survey were also entered into a prize draw to win some lovely Fairtrade goodies including chocolate, wine and coffee to name just a few items – more on that later. Watch this space!

The Gedling Fairtrade Group will be at this year’s Arnold Carnival taking place at Arnot Hill Park on Saturday 2.00pm – 10.30pm Sunday 11.00am – 10.00pm

Come along to find out more about Fairtrade, the types of Fairtrade goods you can buy and Fairtrade Town status for Gedling.

Whilst you’re there check out some of the other carnival attractions including the fun dog show, craft marquee, table top activities for children and the The Battle of Britain Dakota memorial flypast on Sunday.

Visit the Gedling Borough Council website for more information.

We’ll look forward to meeting you there!

On 2008′s extra day many Notts people gathered at the Nottingham Council House to show their support for Fairtrade by joining in on the Fairtrade Fits 2008 event.

The event was a great success with various businesses and organisation holding information and retail stalls. There was beautiful Fairtrade jewellery and clothing on sale as well as skincare products, food and gifts. Plus free Fairtrade tea, coffee and juice was flowing all day!

Gideon Gilbert, a banana farmer from St Vincent visiting Nottingham took part in the event and strutted his stuff on the catwalk in the Fairtrade Fashion show.

There was also music and a performance by local Fairtrade campaigners which you can watch here:

Gideon Gilbert is a Fairtrade banana farmer from St. Vincent in the Windward Islands who has been brought to the UK by the Fairtrade Foundation for Fairtrade Fortnight. He spent the whole of the day on Wednesday 27th February touring the Borough in support of our campaign for Fairtrade status.

He began the day at 9.30am at Sainsbury’s in Arnold where he looked at their display of bananas, which are now all Fairtrade. He was able to pick out bags of bananas which had come from the Windward Islands.

At 10.20 he was at Killisick Junior School, where he spoke to an assembly. He showed a powerpoint presentation which he used to explain to pupils what it is like to work on a banana farm. He then described how the farmers use the Fairtrade premium which they receive on top of the price paid for the bananas. It is spent on roads to allow better access to farms, on supporting pre-school education and sport in schools and on scholarships at secondary level. He then answered questions from the pupils.

At 11.30 he was at Colonel Frank Seely School in Calverton, where he met pupil representatives from the steering group which is driving the school’s campaign to become a Fairtrade School. They explained to him how they study Fairtrade in lessons, organise taster sessions, put up posters and displays, talk to parents and friends about the importance of Fairtrade, use the Fairtrade logo as the screensaver on their computers and have strong links with the local Co-operative store. Gideon then talked to them about growing bananas. ‘Fairtrade has transformed my life’ he told them.

He then sat in on a Year 7 drama lesson, where the pupils talked about Fairtrade and then, in groups, mimed how bananas are grown, prepared, shipped and delivered to us in the UK. Great fun to watch a line of seven pupils repeating gestures over and over again to convey the whole process! A very enjoyable and imaginative lesson!

After lunch at the school he went to Plantations Coffee Shop in Arnold, where, over a drink, he talked with Tina Bradley, the proprietor, about banana growing. He used a photograph of a banana farm damaged by a hurricane to explain what then had to be done to help the farm recover.

At 4pm he met the Mayor of Gedling, Councillor Jenny Spencer, in the foyer of the Civic Centre. They were photographed together at the Fairtrade display set up for Fairtrade Fortnight by the Gedling Fairtrade Group. He was shown the Council Chamber and was able to talk to the Mayor about his life as a Fairtrade banana farmer.

We are very grateful indeed to Gideon who, through his visit, has given a boost to our campaign for Fairtrade status for Gedling Borough and made us all the more determined to achieve it as soon as possible!

Report by Allan Leadbeater