The next Gedling Fairtrade Group meeting will take place on Monday 25th July, 7pm at Gedling Civic Centre.

Join us to discuss how we can continue to promote Fairtrade in Gedling Borough, ideas for upcoming events and maintaining Fairtrade Town Status.

Contact us if you would like to know more.

Click here for details on how to get to Gedling Civic Centre

Show your support for Fairtrade in Gedling Borough by displaying one of our car stickers. You don’t have to use it in your car, you could pop it in any window, it’s up to you!

The stickers cost just £3 each (plus 50 pence for postage) and this is what they look like (they measure approx 30cm x 7cm):

You can buy your sticker now online. Just click the ‘Buy Now’ button below.

We use PayPal to sell our stickers, which is a secure way of making transactions online. You don’t need a PayPal account to use this, just your debit or credit card. Once you have paid for your sticker we’ll pop it in the post to you.

If you would like to pay for your sticker by cheque, please contact us.

Thank you for your help!

This summer we have been trying hard to bring the Fairtrade message to as many Gedling residents as possible.  We have never had a stall in Gedling Village so we decided to apply for an information stall at the Gedling Gala on Saturday 3rd July.  We had a great day!

David and Allan turned up at 11.15 to put up the gazebo and set up the stall.  We repeated what we had done at the Arnold Carnival in June.  We had a display of Fairtrade in Gedling Borough, a leaflet listing suppliers, the quiz and the draw, lots of leaflets and a plate of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate to attract the punters.  Surprising how many people didn’t realise Dairy Milk is now Fairtrade!  Our prize of a bag of Co-operative Fairtrade goods included a donation in kind from the Co-operative in Gedling Road, for which we were most grateful.

Vicky was not able to help out – something about a wedding, she said.  David was involved in a tennis tournament that had been brought forward and had to leave at 12; his wife, Sally, stepped in to complete the morning session.  Ash and Christine looked after the stall in the afternoon, with Allan coming back from a quick sandwich to support.  We could do with a few more recruits to help out on such occasions!

We had a really successful day.  We were in a line of stalls near the Willow Lane entrance and so had a chance to talk to lots of people as they came in or out.  The music coming from just opposite us didn’t stop us talking as much as we could!  By the time we packed up at 4.30pm we had a total of 83 entries for our draw.  So, talking to family groups again, we must have discussed Fairtrade with more than 200 people.  22 people gave us e-mail addresses to receive our planned e-mail newsletter.  We even discovered a local resident whose uncle is a director of the Fairtrade Foundation!  Amazing what you discover when you talk to people on the ground!

The winner of the Fairtrade goods was Mrs. Marshall of Bulwell who had come to Gedling to visit her niece.

Our thanks must go to the Gedling Gala committee for giving us this excellent chance to talk to so many local residents.

We have some fantastic news. Gedling borough has officially now been given Fairtrade Town status by the Fairtrade Foundation!

We are very pleased to have achieved this status and thank all of the Fairtrade suppliers and supporters in Gedling who contributed to making this happen.

There is still a lot of work to do though, raising awareness about Fairtrade in the borough and encouranging more shops to sell Fairtrade goods and more shoppers to buy them!

If you have some time to help us then we’d love to meet you. Come along to our next meeting on 17th February or please get in touch to find out more.

Yippee! We have now met the criteria for Fairtrade Town status and our application is being processed as I type.

This means lots more to do in 2010, starting with Fairtrade Fortnight, when we’ll be holding a celebration event for our supporters and a competition for local schools to create a Fairtrade poster.

Throughout the year we’ll be working hard to continue to raise awareness of Fairtrade in our borough and looking for even more supporters and suppliers to add to our directory.

If you know of any shops, cafes, businesses, organisations, schools or places of worship in Gedling borough that either sells or uses Fairtrade goods then please let us know. We’d love to say thank you to them and promote them here on our website.

Come along to our next meeting on Thursday 21st January, 7.30pm at Gedling Civic Centre, Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 6LU to find out more about our campaign, share your ideas and get involved.

Since the Gedling Fairtrade Group was founded in September 2007 they have been very impressed to find a number businesses and organisations in the borough selling and using Fairtrade goods. They’ve also learned that many people in Gedling are now routinely adding Fairtrade items to their shopping list and understand the meaning of Fairtrade for farmers in developing countries.

Now Gedling Fairtrade Group are looking for volunteers of all ages and talents to be involved in their activities. Raising awareness about Fairtrade can be done in so many ways and you can give as much time as you wish.

Here are a few ways that you can get involved:

• Share ideas for activities
• Help organise events
• Create displays and publicity materials
• Write articles and press releases
• Talk to the public, businesses and organisations about Fairtrade
• Help survey shops, cafes and businesses for our Fairtrade Town application

The Gedling Faitrade Group usually meets once every 3 months and so involvement in the group does not have to be a big commitment. You might have a particular skill or experience that you would like to share with the group too.

Some of our previous activities include a glamorous Fairtrade fashion show, stalls at Arnold carnival and Gedling Show, a visit from a Fairtrade farmer and displays about Fairtrade in the borough.

Do get in touch or come along to one of our meetings if you’d like to find out more.

About Fairtrade
Fairtrade means supporting farmers in developing countries. By buying a product with the Fairtrade mark you can be sure that farmers earn a fair wage which allows a better standard of living and access to services such as healthcare and education for their children.

Redhill School in Arnold have produced a fabulous 2009 calendar to support Fairtrade.

Miss Lockett from the Fairtrade Committee tells us all about it…

“The Fair Trade Committee, comprising a group of sixth formers, 2 staff members and the Humanities Club has now been up and running for 6 weeks.  We have discussed our aims, investigated possible activities and begun planning for the Fair Trade fortnight.  We decided that we wanted to do something within school to raise awareness of Fair Trade, so the sixth formers came up with the idea of a Fair Trade Calendar.  This involved the 12 students designing and making a Fair Trade costume, ranging from a Christmas pudding to an orange!  Each student had their photo taken in their outfit and now represents one of the months of the year.  So far the calendar has been a huge success, and people all over the school are talking about Fair Trade.  We are looking forward to Fair Trade fortnight in the New Year, and to making Redhill a fully fledged Fair Trade school. “

To find out more about Redhill School visit: www.redhillmoodle.org.uk

If you would like to buy one of the calendars please contact Miss E Locket, contact details can be found on the Redhill School website

At the Arnold Carnival 199 people took part in our survey to find out about local residents’ knowledge of Fairtrade and their Fairtrade buying habits.

Here are the results:

Question 1 – Have you seen this logo (Fairtrade logo) before?
Yes – 90%
Yes I think so – 2%
Not Sure – 0.5%
No – 7.5%

Question 2 – Do you know what the logo stands for?
Yes – 80%
Partially Correct – 12%
No – 8%
Question 3 – How many products can you name with this Fairtrade logo?
0 – 7.5%
1 – 8%
2-5 – 45%
6-10 – 30%
Over 10 – 9.5%

Question 4 – How many of the Fairtrade items do you buy on a regular basis?
0 – 24%
1 – 23%
2-5 – 45%
Over 5 – 8%

National figures released for Faitrade Fortnight in March 2008 show:
70% recognise the logo (compared to 90% at the Arnold Carnival).
64% understand the meaning of the mark (compared to 80% at the Carnival).
25% regularly buy several Fairtrade products (compared to 53% at the Carnival).

As you can see, these results are very encouraging. Compared to national figures local residents are much more aware of Fairtrade and what it means. Double the number of people in our survey regularly buy Fairtrade goods too!

Help us to gain Fairtrade status for Gedling Borough

• Do you run a shop, restaurant / cafe or business in Gedling?
• Do you use Fairtrade goods (such as tea, coffee and sugar) in your staff room?
• Do you sell Fairtrade products in Gedling Borough?

If you can answer ‘YES’ to any of the above questions then Gedling Fairtrade Group want to hear from you!

The Gedling Fairtrade Group is working hard to achieve Fairtrade status for the borough of Gedling and we’re very close to reaching our goal. Fairtrade status requires 23 outlets to sell Fairtrade products as well as 12 restaurants or cafes. The Fairtrade Foundation also expects a good range of employers and community groups to use Fairtrade products if status is to be awarded.

So, take a look at our directory page, if you’re not already listed then we don’t know about you and that means you can contribute towards Gedling becoming a Fairtrade Borough.

If you would like to know more about becoming a business which uses or sells Fairtrade products then please contact us.

Visit our Fairtrade Products page to find out what’s available.