Successful Fairtrade Fortnight:
Fairtrade Fortnight began on Monday 21st February - a fortnight to promote Fairtrade. Across the UK thousands of companies, organisations and individuals come to together to share stories of the producers – growing the food that we consume, or mining the gold we wear or growing the cotton our clothes are made from. Many producers/growers/farmers are often exploited and underpaid. Events are held to get the message across that Fairtrade provides producers/growers/farmers a fairer deal. The theme of 2022 was ‘Choose the World you Want’ – showing support for farmers, growing our food, at the front line of the climate crisis. We have been busy this fortnight promoting Fairtrade in Lincoln. TCfR has worked with Lincoln Fairtrade City, The University Multi-Faith Chaplaincy and the Lincolnshire Coop to put on four events. The Lincolnshire Coop very kindly donated Fairtrade coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate and milk – refreshments and chocolate tasting. A Fairtrade quiz took place at the university over the last two weeks which was won by an international student – winning three bars of Fairtrade chocolate. We held a Fairtrade information stand in the Atrium of the Minerva building where we had great interaction with students and for many this was the first time they had come across Fairtrade. The free chocolate samples were extremely popular with students. A Fairtrade Coffee Morning was held on the middle Saturday where delicious homemade treats were served made using Fairtrade ingredients – yummy banana bread and peanut butter chocolate squares. It was good to be able to talk about Fairtrade, raise awareness while enjoying refreshments. Finally we held a film and discussion evening – Blood Diamond. A great film followed by an discussion on the morality of diamonds and the choices made by the main characters in the film. A film about diamonds being mined and sold to fund war and this eventually leading to the Kimberley Agreement, ethical diamonds and Fairtrade diamonds.
