fairtrade bananas

Let's Talk About Fair Trade!

Let's Talk About Fair Trade!

We think it’s never too soon to start learning about fair trade! 

Our new outreach programme got off to a great start with two workshop sessions at Pannal Beavers and St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Knaresborough. Linking in nicely with Fairtrade Fortnight, our aim was to help children understand the connections between the food on their plate and the wider world.  

The Y3 Class of 7&8 year olds at St Mary's explored The World in our Supermarket Bag, which helps them discover that many of the things we eat come from the Southern Hemisphere. It highlights the interconnections in trade and how precarious this can be if one of the links in the chain is broken. Extreme weather events, supply and transportation problems, and most of all how climate change is already devastating the lives and livelihoods of growers and producers.  

Both groups looked at the Journey of a Banana and took part in a role play to demonstrate how buying Fairtrade improves the lives of growers from Costa Rica to Columbia. Farmers are paid more for each banana and the Fairtrade Premium means they have money to spend on projects which benefit the whole community. 

Children are very responsive to the concept of fairness and both groups really engaged with the workshops and grasped that the choices we make have global consequences. The difference we can make to farmers lives is huge. By choosing Fairtrade we know the farmers are fairly paid, have better working conditions and aren’t exposed to harmful pesticides and chemicals which affect their health and that of the planet.

We’re keen to develop our outreach work and would love to hear from any groups who are interested in hosting a Fairtrade workshop. We can tailor our sessions to suit different age ranges, including adults, and to particular areas of interest such as rights & responsibilities, choices & consequences, climate justice and sustainability. 

Our shop may be small but our ideas are big! 

The outreach team - Gillian, Rosy and Diane