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Fairtrade Celebration in Congleton Town Hall
The celebration was hugely
successful. A major focus of the day was to decorate and display
bunting decorated with messages and images showing why we should
support
Fairtrade. Congleton produced roughly 200 metres of the bunting,
which criss-crossed the town Hall and filled the stage.
This was a significant contribution to the national attempt to set a
new world
record for a continous length of bunting. The target was to
create
a length of greater than two miles, from bunting collected from all
round the country. Subsequently, 14,281 pennants, stretching
3,427 metres (2.129 miles) were brought together from around the
country and stitched together, thus beating the record. An army of young people not
only
supported the event but organised a whole host of activities in their
schools and organisations during Fairtrade Fortnight. Bosley
School showed a superb presentation they had put together, and
Marlfields School held a mouth-watering 'cook-off'. Mayor, Cllr David Brown, stressed the commitment of Congleton as a Fairtrade Town, and MP Fiona Bruce spoke with real passion about her support for Fairtrade. Deborah Darnes, Chair of Cheshire East Fairtrade Group, challenged local businesses to use Fairtrade products and challenged everyone to show off their Fairtrade labels, to be proud to support Fairtrade. Congleton Food and Drink Festival
People from Congleton
churches, predominantly from our Circuit churches, ran a Fairtrade
stall on the main street of the town, as part of the hugely successful Food &
Drink Festival
2011. On a gloriously warm, sunny day, the event attracted many
thousands of visitors, even more than the previous year. From our
Fairtrade stall we encouraged people to sample a number of
Fairtrade products. In addition to the kinds of packaged food and
drink product normally seen, people were able to buy Fairtrade bananas
sourced from the Co-op. Fairtrade stickers were 'planted' on
hundreds of visitors and the supply of leaflets was exhausted long
before the end of the day. |
 At the World Mission Forum, Philip Warren, a non-executive director, talked about Traidcraft. He emphasised the importance of the Christian identity of the organisation, which is something we can easily overlook. He stressed Traidcraft's role in developing new Fairtrade projects. A recent one was to develop a co-operative amongst rubber producers, which took a phenomenal amount of negotiation to cut through both Cambodian and Fairtrade politics. Traidcraft are asking us to buy Traidcraft branded products to enable them to continue their pioneering work. Historically we have encouraged people to buy Fairtrade in supermarkets in preference to Traidcraft. He made us think that‘s wrong: we should be putting Traidcraft first. |
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'Chatterbox' Coffee Shop, Trinity
Come and treat yourself to a good cup of coffee or tea and teacake, and at the same time see the full range of Traidcraftt products. The coffee shop is open from 10.00am until 12.00 noon every weekday, at Westwood House, Trinity Church. Sales last year reached more than £7,000. Please continue to support this cause which offers a fair wage to Third World producers. |
Events
Supported by Methodist
Churches in Congleton
Congleton's
churches were actively involved in organising and running Congleton's
main Fairtrade event of the year, the Fairtrade
Celebration
in the Town Hall,
which also featured the town mayor, MP and town crier. We have also been involved in the Cheshire Show, Charities Fair and the Congleton Food & Drink Festival, where we offered samples and products for sale, and distributed promotional leaflets. We also have introduced Traidcraft stalls at a number of schools in Congleton and the surrounding area. |
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Church people led a 'Deep Thinking' Day at Eaton bank High School, where in two, 45 minute slots for around 60 students they gave a presentation on Fairtrade. Our people have run special events in schools, including curriculum sessions at primary schools. There, they have organised activities like letting the children divide a banana into sections to show their guesses as to what percentage of a product's price goes where. |
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'Fairtrade' Status for our Churches, Circuit & District
Through
Traidcraft, churches in the circuit
actively support a way of trading
which gives producers a fair return for their products. For
example, as shown in the graph, conventional pricing of bananas codemns
growers to live below subsistence level. See also Congleton's Food and Drink Festival above.
At the
time of writing, almost all of the churches of Dane and Trent Methodist
Circuit have committed to support actively
a way of trading which gives producers a fair return for
their
products. Specifically,
each of
these churches commits
to
- using Fairtrade tea & coffee for refreshments during
church
activities,
- encouraging people using their church to respect the church's
Fairtrade status by using Fairtrade products on the premises too,
- encouraging people visiting their church
to use Fairtrade
products for their personal needs,
- lending their support to local Fairtrade events and activities.
A group has been formed, with the support of Churches Together in Congleton and Congleton Town Council, to promote fair trade in Congleton and the surrounding area. Having achieved Fairtrade status for the town, that status has been put on display on the town's boundary signs. We are now working with the Cheshire East Council to achieve Fairtrade status for the borough.
Chester & Stoke-on-Trent Methodist District have also satisfied the conditions for achieving Fairtrade Status. The District will now be encouraging all Church Councils either to agree that their churches will become Fairtrade churches, or that they will renew their Fairtrade status, which also involves a considerable amount of work.
Chester
& Stoke-on-Trent Methodist
District also run a Fairtrade cafe and shop in Hanley, Stoke on Trent,
which
sells a wide range of goods from Traidcraft and other sources.