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

On Tuesday 1st March we held our ‘Show off your Label’ celebration event, marking the start of Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 and Gedling’s 1 year anniversary of being a Fairtrade Borough.

The celebration took place at the beautiful Newstead Abbey, our flagship supporter venue. We arrived there early to decorate the Abbey cafe and courtyard with a whopping 40 metres of bunting created by pupils from Pinewood Infant School & Foundation Unit and Killisick Primary School. The bunting flags were adorned with drawings and paintings of the Fairtrade mark, Fairtrade products and lots of messages about buying fairtrade!

In the spirit of the theme of Fairtrade Fortnight, the group decorated a large sheet made from Fairtrade cotton with the words “Show off your Label”.

We were very happy to be joined by the Mayor of Gedling, Councillor Pat Blandamer, who presented the local school children with certificates for taking part in the Show off your Label bunting activity.

After a speech from the mayor and photographs by local press we enjoyed lovely Fairtrade refreshments in the Abbey Cafe.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the staff at Newstead Abbey who were so friendly and welcoming, helping us to organise the event and keep the Fairtrade tea & coffee flowing. Also of course to the parents, teachers and children of Pinewood Infant & Killisick Junior Schools, the Mayor of Gedling and everyone in the borough of Gedling who continue to support Fairtrade.

On Tuesday 1st March, 10.30am at Newstead Abbey, Gedling Fairtrade Group are having a celebration!

This event marks Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 and the second year of Gedling being a Fairtrade Borough.

Anyone based in Gedling and interested in supporting Fairtrade is welcome to come along. Meet other local Fairtrade suppliers and supporters and see the Fairtrade Fortnight themed “Show off Your Label” bunting, hand made by pupils of local schools, Killisick Junior and Pinewood Infants Schools. The Mayor of Gedling will also be presenting certificates to the schools.

Delicious Fairtrade refreshments will be served at the Abbey Café too!

If you would like to come along or have any questions, please contact us.

We’ll look forward to seeing you there!

The Gedling Fairtrade Group meetings usually take place every 3 months and we thought it would be useful to give you a run down of the meeting outcomes each time. Hopefully this will provide further insight into what we do and if you’d like to get involved you can get in touch or come along.

Here’s a summary of our meeting on 11th November 2010:

• Surveys & Publicity: All agreed the regional areas of Gedling to be covered for surveys and taking out publicity. We now have maps which helpfully outline the boundaries of our areas.
• Funding: The group has received a small grant from Gedling CVS to help pay for publicity materials.
• Fairtrade Fortnight 2011: 28th Feb to 13th March 2011. Agreed we would hold an event which will be linked to the national “Show off your Label” theme. Event details:
  • Event to be held on Tuesday 1st March. Exact venue to be confirmed
  • Invitations to be sent out to all Gedling Fairtrade suppliers and supporters
  • Local schools to make bunting flags decorated with Fairtrade theme images
  • The group will decorate a large Fairtrade cotton sheet for a photo opportunity
  • Fairtrade refreshments will be available
  • Local press to be invited
• Fairtrade Borough status renewal will be due early 2011. All members to update suppliers and supporters in their area for the re-application.
• Fairtrade Products: Many more chocolate bars are now Fairtrade (such as Dairy Milk and Kit-Kats) and therefore this increases the potential number of suppliers.
• The next meeting will be held on 15th January where the group will prepare display materials for the celebration event.

Come along to our next Fairtrade Group meeting on Wednesday 3rd November, 7pm at Gedling Civic Centre.

At this meeting we’ll be discussing ideas to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 so all input is welcome! It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been before, if you just want to check it out or would like to begin to get involved.

Take a look at the Fairtrade Foundation website for next year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme of  ‘Show off your Label‘

If you’d like to find out more before coming to a meeting please contact us.

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.

On Sunday 20th June the Gedling Fairtrade group had a stall at the Arnold Carnival.  Vicky and Allan arrived in time to get everything set up by 11am.  Vicky had organised an attractive display on Fairtrade in Gedling Borough and had produced a leaflet listing all the local Fairtrade outlets.  David had produced a short Fairtrade quiz.  It had photos of 5 pairs of items and people had to say which of each pair was Fairtrade.  Between us we made pretty sure that nobody could get the answers wrong!  People then gave their names and a contact number, which went into a draw for the bag of Co-operative Fairtrade goods displayed on the stall.

Vicky and Allan talked to visitors until one o’clock.  Then Rachel and Ash took over until 4pm. Vicky and Allan came back to round off the afternoon and pack up at 5pm.

There were 78 entries for the draw.  We tended to talk to family groups so we must have talked to about 200 people altogether during the day.  Most people were very responsive but it wasn’t all plain sailing.  We had the usual question ‘But does the money really get to the people who need it?’   We did our best to explain how the Fairtrade system works, through co-operatives and individual farmers, to ensure small farmers really do get a better return for their crop.  Another visitor told us that, if farmers got a low price for their product, then that was business and they had nothing to complain about!  If they wanted change, they had governments who should do something about it.  Vicky and Allan explained they felt that we, as consumers, have a moral responsibility to avoid exploitation and pay a decent price for goods from the developing world.  We failed to persuade him but at least we had the chance to talk to him about the issue.

Another advantage of the day was that we got 25 people to sign up for our planned e-mail newsletter, helping to spread support for Fairtrade across the Borough.

Tuesday 22nd was a happy day for Taran and Maya, who live near the centre of Arnold; Allan rang up to tell them they had won the draw.  He offered to deliver the bag of Fairtrade goods on Wednesday at 4pm but it appears there was an important football match on at that time.  The handover was therefore delayed until Thursday.  The photo shows Taran and Maya with their prize.

Our grateful thanks are due to the organisers of the Arnold Carnival and especially to the employees of the Council, who are always efficient, helpful and friendly.

In the run up to the election we asked the Gedling candidates where they stand on Fairtrade.

Here is the e-mail sent by David on behalf of the Gedling Fairtrade Group with candidates’ responses below (copied exactly as written)…

I am writing to you on behalf of the Gedling Fairtrade Group in the run up to the general election to find out your views on Fairtrade. We have recently (Feb 2010) managed to gain Fairtrade status for Gedling Borough by reaching the Fairtrade Foundation’s criteria of numbers of shops, cafes, businesses, restaurants and community groups using or selling Fairtrade goods.

I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions:

1. Do you agree with the principles of Fairtrade and if so can you tell us what you personally have done and currently do to support Fairtrade?

2. If you were elected would you be prepared to support our group to maintain Fairtrade status (we need to meet the criteria each year)?

3. What do you think that the next government needs to do to ensure that Trade is fair and meets the need of poor producers in developing countries as well as consumers in the UK and EU?

Please do visit our local website for information about Fairtrade in Gedling – http://fairtradegedling.org.uk/ . We will put your replies on our website so that our supporters can see them.

Response from Bruce Laughton – Conservative

Hi David I helped Bishop Ronald and my Auntie Val make Southwell the first Free Trade Town in Notts my County Council ward and introduced it into Notts County Council. Action speaks louder than words. Thanks. For contact. Bruce

Response from Julia Bateman – Liberal Democrats

Thank you very much for your email regarding Fairtrade.  I think it impressive that as a group in the community you have been committed to gaining Fairtrade status for Gedling Borough by reaching the Fairtrade Foundation’s criteria of numbers of shops, cafes, businesses, restaurants and community groups using or selling Fairtrade goods.

I recently responded to the Fairtrade “one simple question” campaign with a resounding yes, that if elected as MP for Gedling on May 6th, I would  support the continued growth of Fairtrade in the UK.   I agree with the principles of Fairtrade and try do my small part such as purchase Fairtrade goods in supermarkets (such as the Co-op)  particulary coffee.  I know it doesn’t sound much but every little helps. I would try to keep in mind what shops, cafes, restaurants have the status and choose accordingly.

If elected I would be pleased to work hard with and support your group to maintain Fairtrade status  in the Borough. (we need to meet the criteria each year)?  I would like to see you have a celebration day in March next year because you have retained your status. I would like to help you in any event after the election period.

As you will know, global fair trade sales have grown rapidly over the past decade, reaching €2.4bn in 2007, 47 percent more than the year before and it is estimated that 7.5 million people benefit directly from fair trade prices. Local governments in Europe and North America have used their procurement policy to purchase fair-trade-labelled products, though central governments (including the UK’s) remain more cautious, largely because of concern about the interaction with WTO and EU rules.

While Liberal Democrats continue to support the growth of the fair trade movement, we also want to break down the underlying barriers to trade and promote sustainable trade and investment in developing countries by:

• Working through the European Union and World Trade Organisation to seek to remove the subsidies and tariff barriers that prevent the poorest countries in the world selling their goods on fair terms and promote environmentally sustainable trade.
• Working to end the dumping of subsidised agricultural exports by developed economies, which is undermining farming in Africa and other parts of the world.
• Requiring companies benefiting from open markets to behave responsibly and adhere to OECD guidelines. We will also promote a new international agreement to encourage investment, particularly in the poorest countries.
• Increasing opportunities in richer countries for sustainable products from developing nations.

Thank you again for taking the time to get in contact with me on this important issue. Please do publish this response on your site or I am happy for you to forward it to your members.

Kind regards
Julia

Response from Vernon Coaker – Labour

Thank you for your email.  I fully support Fairtrade, as I have always done.
Vernon

Response from Dave Marshall – UKIP

Hi, thank you for your email regardind Fairtrade. I do agree with the principle of fairtrade and i have swapped some of my purchases accordingly. I would also be delighted to support the work you have been doing to get a fairer price for poorer farmers, although we need to ensure that the monies go to the farmers and not the respective governments or regimes. Keep up the good work!!

Stephen Adcock – BNP

Unfortunately we were not able to find an e-mail address for the BNP candidate. If anyone knows his work (not private) e-mail address please forward it to us so that we can ask for his response to the same e-mail.