FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT 2016

By buying Fairtrade we are able to support farmers and workers in providing food for their families. When they are paid a fair price they are able to not only put food on their families tables but maybe earn a little extra which can be used to develop their farms and provide more financial security for their future.  

As a Fairtrade School, Fairtrade Fortnight is an important date in our year's calendar, a great opportunity to once again bring Fairtrade to the forefront and raise awareness amongst students, staff and parents of the importance of fairtrade. Around the world, there are still millions of farmers and workers, who whilst working hard to grow the food that we eat, ironically do not themselves have food security, often not earning enough to ensure their next meal.

Celebrating Fairtrade at St Ivo..

The Geography Department and our Eco-Ivo team held a number of events over the course of Fairtrade Fortnight to raise awareness of the importance of Fairtrade in providing farmers with a fair price for their goods amongst, students, staff and parents.

FAIRTRADE STALLS

During the Fairtrade Fortnight, stalls have been held at lunch and breaktimes selling Fairtrade Chocolate and Fairtrade GeoBars to raise awareness of Fairtrade amongst students, as well as raising a large donation to go to Fairtrade Farmers. The chocolate stocked was from the Divine Chocolate company, which is 44% owned by a co-operative of cocoa farmers from Ghana, know as the Kuapa-Kokoo co-operative. As well as benefitting from the Fairtrade premium for their cocoa, the farmers, as part owners in the chocolate business are also able to share the profits and therefore are able to invest more in their families.

To find out more:
From Bean to Bar - follow the story of chocolate from the cocoa through to the finished product.
The Divine Story - how Divine came about
Kuapa Kokoo - find out about the farmers' co-operative behind the Divine Chocolate company
Dubble Bar - great website for students to find out more about the Dubble Bar for children from Divine.

THE GREAT “GEOGRAPHY FAIRTRADE BREAKFAST”

"Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half the world" (Martin Luther King, 1967) This famous quote formed the basis of the main Fairtrade Foundation, campaign for Fairtrade Fortnight 2016.

The Fairtrade Foundation challenged people to be part of the biggest breakfast the world has seen, by having their own fairtrade breakfast to raise awareness and understanding that by supporting fairtrade we can help farmers and works to put food on their table. Here in the Geography Department we are always up for a challenge and so decided to put on a special "Big Geography Fairtrade Breakfast" for students from our Eco-Ivo group and the Year 7 and 8 Geography Club.

To count as a Fairtrade Breakfast we had to have at least one fairtrade beverage and one Fairtrade foodstuff. We rose to the challenge!

For our breakfast we had the following: fairtrade products from a total of 13 different countries!

• Fairtrade Cotton table cloth - India
• KitKat Chocolate with fairtrade cocoa - The Ivory Coast
• Fairtrade Mango pieces - Burkina Faso
• GeoBars with Fairtrade Rasins - South Africa
• Fairtrade Bananas - Dominican Republic
• Fairtrade Bananas - Columbia
• Fairtrade Roses - Kenya
• Fairtrade Honey - Guatemala
• Fairtrade Strawberry Jam - Paraguay
• Fairtrade Tea - Kenya and Uganda
• Fairtrade Sugar - Mauritius
• Drinking Chocolate with fairtrade cocoa - Kenya
• Ginger Beer with Fairtrade Ginger - Sri Lanka
• Calypso Apple Juice with Fairtrade Apples - South Africa
• Marmalade with Fairtrade oranges - Paraguay

Whilst we couldn't have Fairtrade milk, butter or bread - we ensured we bought organic produce to ensure we were still meeting our target of helping the environment as well as people!

We had a thoroughly enjoyable breakfast and were entertained by music from the Soweto Gospel Choir. Heads of Department from other subjects and SLT joined us alongside students from KS3 through to KS5.

Two of our excellent Year 8 Geographers kicked off proceedings by introducing the concept of fairtrade using a short PowerPoint they had put together to help raise awareness of the message underlying the event.

St Ivo School Geography Department would like to thank Waitrose and the Just Sharing Shop, St Ives, for their support with this event - it was much appreciated.

To find out more about Fairtrade and this years campaign try the following links:

The Fairtrade Foundation
Make Bananas Fair
Fairtrade Matters

KILOMBERO RICE CHALLENGE

As part of our work during Fairtrade Fortnight we decided to carry out the Kilombero Rice challenge to sell 90 one kilogram bags of delicious Kilombero Rice - the number that need to be sold for a farmer to earn the money needed to send a child in Malawi to secondary school for a year.

More information about the rice challenge and what we were doing can be found here. We were delighted that thanks to the support of students, parents and staff we have been successful in meeting the challenge and over the two week Fairtrade Fortnight we sold all 90Kg bags!

We would like to say a special thanks to the Sixth Form Geography Ambassadors and the Eco-Ivo students that helped run the fairtrade stalls and sell rice during their breaks and lunchtimes over the fortnight.

 St Ivo Geography Department Online Portal
     “Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future” - Michael Palin

Head of Department - Mr R Chambers