Garstang renews its Fairtrade Town status
The summer of 2008 saw Garstang renew its Fairtrade Town status with a glowing report from the Fairtrade Foundation. This is the third Renewal since Garstang was officially recognised as a Fairtrade Town in 2001 and those providing the feedback comments were simply lost for words in three out of the five goals.
Under Goal four which listed no fewer than 30 events in the last year alone the feedback comment read;
“We can appreciate why Garstang has been compared to stick of rock with Fairtrade running through it and this renewal application and the level of dedications and creativity flowing through it demonstrates yet again why Garstang has – and continues to – inspire the world, from San Francisco to Copenhagan, Fair Isle to Media, USA! Our congratulations for showing the world how it’s done and our thanks for sharing the expertise, ideas, energy and enthusiasm with the world!”
The final comment concluded with even more praise when they wrote;
“It is extremely difficult if not impossible to come up with any useful suggestions for this renewal application besides those listed under Goal 1.
In the past 12 months since the last renewal the steering group have excelled themselves in increasing the number of retail and catering outlets, achieving a full complement of schools and faith groups and many other community groups and businesses. The number and variety of events and the amount of press coverage is simply amazing and it is hard to believe there is anyone left in Garstang who hasn't been touched in some way.
In coming up with the very comprehensive and ambitious strategy, they have again showed the qualities of vision and determination that gave us the first Fairtrade Town.
Congratulations Garstang, this is why you are seen as leaders, an example of what is possible, and a beacon for the rest of the world. Thank you on behalf of all the lives you have touched and all the people you have inspired.”
Worthy praise indeed for the world's first Fairtrade Town!
Read the complete feedback form for Garstang's Fairtrade Town Renewal 2008 here.
Children of Fairtrade cocoa farmers visit Garstang
On 13th June 2008, Garstang welcomed Stephen Amankwah and Joycelin Segbedzi, two 14 year old students from Garstang’s twin town of New Koforidua, a Fairtrade cocoa farming community in Ghana.
They joined forces with children from all three of Garstang's Primary schools to encourage more shops in Garstang to stock Fairtrade chocolate and congratulate those that already support Fairtrade. See Garstang's Fairtrade Directory.
The schoolchildren also took part in a Fairtrade picnic and traditional English and Ghanaian dancing. To find out more about the Ghanaian children, their time in the UK and the Dubble Agents MISSION:POSSIBLE, visit www.tradingvisions.org/kidstour.
'Meet the Fairtrade Farmers' event at the Crofters Hotel
On Monday 9th June 2008, the Crofters Hotel in Garstang hosted the 'Meet the Fairtrade Farmers' event, organised by the Garstang Fairtrade Steering Group. It featured showing of the much acclaimed film Black Gold and the gripping 'After Black Gold' presentation from Joe Human of the Keswick and Cumbria Fair Trade campaigns, followed by a discussion with the coffee farmers Mekonen Aweke and Raya Abakoyas from Choche, Ethiopia.
A capacity crowd of just under 100 people attended the event, which saw the Crofters Hotel make a 100% switch to Fairtrade tea and coffee in the restaurant and guest rooms.
Photos from the event are available to view here: www.flickr.com/photos/tedbamber/sets/72157605538423992/
Activities for Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 in Garstang
Sunday 24th February at 11am - Fair Trade Church Service at the United Reformed Church, Croston Road, Garstang - Traidcraft stall.
Wednesday 27th February 2pm - 4pm - 'Simply Tea and Chat', Wesleys, Methodist Church, Park Hill Road, Garstang - An opportunity to sample from over 20 Fairtrade teas or herbal infusions.
Thursday 28th February 7pm onwards – ‘Food For Thought’, Coffee Pot, Church Street, Garstang – Fairtrade/Local Produce meal. All you can eat for £6. Including quiz.
Thursday 28th February at 8pm - Fair Trade Singalong with Pip at The Priory Hotel, Scorton - 60's and 70's songs. Admission Free, refreshments included.
Monday 3rd March 2pm - 3pm - Fairtrade Bus Tour, High Street, Garstang – The Fairtrade Bus will visit 10 Fairtrade cities in Fairtrade Fortnight and Garstang as the world’s first Fairtrade Town. It will park on Garstang High Street, outside the Co-op for 1 hour. All welcome.
Friday 7th March at 7pm - "Dreams Of An African Child”, United Reformed Church Hall, Croston Road, Garstang – A play on Child Trafficking with Fairtrade refreshments and stalls. Admission by donation on the door (£1 suggested).
Sunday 9th March at 10.30am - ‘Fair Trade and Unfair Trade’ Church Service at Garstang Methodist Church, Park Hill Road, Garstang – Adults and children are welcome
Sunday 9th March at 7.30pm - Fairtrade Film Festival, Garstang Arts Centre - Showing of 4 short films on Fairtrade and the much acclaimed Black Gold. Fairtrade refreshments. Admission free.
Monday 10th March - Fairtrade Party, in the Crown Hotel, High Street, Garstang – Fairtrade wine and local cheeses available along with other Fairtrade goodies. Including Fairtrade pub quiz and promotion of Ubuntu, the world’s first Fairtrade Cola.
Throughout Fairtrade Fortnight
Special Fairtrade Menu at Pipers Restaurant, High Street, Garstang - During Fairtrade Fortnight Pipers will offer a special Fairtrade menu.
The Mustard Seed, One World Shop, Park Hill Road, Garstang - Displaying promotional material DVD's etc from Traidcraft and the Fairtrade Foundation. Samples of Traidcraft Foods will be available.
Fairtrade Book Event at the Corner Bookshop – Two Fairtrade Books will be available to buy from the Corner Bookshop, Thomas’s Wiend, Garstang; ‘The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook’ and ‘Fighting the Banana Wars’ by Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. The latter includes the ‘Garstang Fairtrade Town Story’ and features many local people.
Garstang's 5th Fairtrade Birthday & Lancashire Launch Fairtrade County Campaign
By becoming the first Fairtrade Town in November 2001 the little town of Garstang pioneered the Fairtrade Towns initiative used to promote the FAIRTRADE Mark. There are now 150 Fairtrade Towns in the UK and the idea has spread to Ireland, Belgium and Canada with hopes of similar initiative starting up in Scandinavia and the USA later this year. Read More
Garstang says MAKE POVERTY HISTORY
As the first Fairtrade Town, Garstang felt duty-bound to show its support for the Make Poverty History campaign. While almost 200,000 people gathered in Hyde Park to listen to the biggest live concert in human history, over 200,000 more felt the need to show their support by forming a human white band around Edinburgh ahead of the G8 summit. Garstang had to be represented! Read More
August 2004: Garstang/Ghana Exchange 2004
On Sunday August 15th a group of five people representing the Garstang community will travel to Ghana on the first visit to New Koforidua since it became Garstang’s twin town in February 2002. The UK group will spend ten days living with their counterparts before traveling back with the Ghanaians on Wednesday 25th August to spend ten days in and around Garstang.
Those involved in the exchange will consist of:
1. Links person Bruce Crowther exchanging with Evelyn Appiah Kubi of Kuapa Kokoo.
2. Local Councillor Gillian Lamb exchanging with Nana Agyekum Sarpong II, Chief of New Koforidua
3. Local artist and businessperson Gwyneth Bough exchanging with the hairdresser Cecilia Mensa.
4. Deputy Head of Garstang Community Primary School (G.C.P.S.) Chris Barlow exchanging with teacher Patrick Gyamfi Nyarkomago
5. A school pupil Ben Crowther aged 10yrs of G.C.P.S. will exchange with Samuel Fianu from Children in Need (CING).
Dairy farmer Aubrey Greenhalgh was to exchange with the Kuapa cocoa farmer Kwasi Poku but although Aubrey will no longer visit Ghana he will still be hosting Kwasi’s visit to Garstang when he returns on August 25th.
The members of each party will share in each other’s experiences and problems and hopefully may even find some common solutions to some of these problems. This is of particular interest where the farming relationship is concerned. Garstang is a rural community and it is hoped that the exchange may bring fair trade cocoa farmers in Ghana together with local Garstang farmers also wanting a fair price for their produce. The UK group will be accompanied by two representatives from the Landscape Design Department of Myerscough College who will design and supervise the building of a children's play area in New Koforidua. The play area will be funded by Churches Together for Garstang District and Brock Valley. BBC North West Reporter Gill Dummigan will also travel to Ghana to document the visit along with Manchester poet Robin Graham.
General aims for the Exchange include:
1. To build on the links made between Garstang and its twin town New Koforidua. To bring a greater depth of understanding of each other and each other’s needs to both communities and to enable people to share in each other’s cultures.
2. To promote mainstream fair trade. To highlight the terrible suffering endured by many due to the present unfair rules of trade and the fact that many small farmers across the world do not get a fair price for their produce.
3. To further highlight Garstang as the world’s first Fairtrade Town thereby promoting the Fairtrade Town initiative and Garstang’s own civic pride.
4. To promote Oxfam’s Education Now Campaign aimed at persuading world governments to meet the UN target to get all children into school by 2015
5. To promote the work of UNICEF by focusing on CING and work with the UNICEF campaign launched in January 2003 to increase awareness of child labour.
6. Widen horizons of each group member to be better ‘armed’ to answer the issues raised on global poverty.
Aims that are more specific to individual exchange members include:
Farmer
1. To highlight the farming crisis in the UK and the desperate need for change in our attitudes towards food security.
2. To alter the consumer mindset that ‘cheap is best’ thereby encouraging the UK consumer to buy local produce and offer a fair price to farmers in the UK as well as developing countries.
Teacher
1. To create a valuable teaching locality resource based on real experiences which will enrich both teacher and pupil’s understanding of life in Ghana, including an understanding of citizenship / Global issues such as Fair Trade, child labour and slavery (past and present). Whilst also establishing friendships / links between children.
Myerscough College
1. Build the children’s play area in New Koforidua.
2. Build on the twin relationship between Myerscough College and Kwadaso College in Kumasi.
3. Broaden student outlook.
To find out what the participants will be doing when in Ghana and the UK take a look at our itinerary and events page.
February 2004: Fairtrade cyclists celebrate 10th Birthday in Garstang
Cyclists from Fairtrade Towns and budding Fairtrade Towns across the UK will converge on Garstang, the world’s first Fairtrade Town to celebrate the 10th Birthday of the FAIRTRADE Mark. Up to 50 cyclists from as far away as Oxford and Cambridge will cycle into Garstang at 4.30pm on Friday 12th March as part of the ‘Spokes of the Wheel’ event organised by the Fairtrade Foundation for Fairtrade Fortnight 2004 (1st – 14th March).
The cyclists will first call in at the Garstang Co-op store where manager Betty Whittam will present each of them with a bar of Co-op own brand Fairtrade chocolate. After completing a lap of the town they will then take part in a Civic Reception attended by Mayor Anne Humphries and Roger Stewart, President of Garstang’s Chamber of Trade. The Crown Pub (Garstang’s only Fairtrade pub) will offer our intrepid Fairtrade supporters some light refreshment before moving on to the Riverside Club for the 10th Birthday Party.
The party, kindly sponsored by the Cooperative Group, will be attended by Brian Namata, Fairtrade sugar Producer from Malawi. As well as hearing from Brian those attending will be treated to the sights and sounds of Nat Biney and his Ghanaian dancers and drummers. Fairtrade merchandise will be available for sale as well as free samples of Fairtrade products. The cyclists will be rewarded with a piece of delicious Co-op Fairtrade chocolate Birthday cake.
The Birthday Party will start at 7.30pm at the Riverside Club (formerly Westminster Club) on Bridge Street, Garstang. No admission charge will be made for this event but numbers will need to be restricted so please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
13th September 2003 Coldplay Raffle
The Garstang Oxfam Group 'Make Trade Fair' raffle was drawn at the Discovery Centre in Garstang on Saturday 13th September 2003. Garstang's Mayor Anne Humphries drew the winning ticket owned by 13 year old Joe Swarbrick of Catterall near Garstang. Joe is now the proud owner of a signed Oxfam 'Make Trade Fair' T shirt. Chris Martin of the popular band Coldplay is well known for wearing an Oxfam shirt when performing. This shirt, signed by the four members of Coldplay was personally designed by Chris for his own use. Read more about the Coldplay raffle here.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2003
On Saturday 15th March a team of cyclists will travel from Garstang to Bolton to join in Bolton's celebration on becoming the UK's largest Fairtrade Town. They will bring their words of congratulation from the first Fairtrade Town and will hopefully meet up with representatives from Chester and Haworth the first Fairtrade City and first Fairtrade Village.
The Ghanaian cocoa farmer Comfort Kwaasibea, will visit Garstang in the evening of March 15th. On Sunday 16th March she will judge a competition open to Garstang's schools to design a flag celebrating Garstang's link with its twin town New Koforidua. It is hoped that two flags will be made and one exchanged with a flag from New Koforidua during the exchange visit in 2004.
A Happy Fair Trade New Year to UK Farmers
2003 brings new hope for British farmers who, like many farmers in Developing Countries, are often struggling to get a fair price for their produce. New Year celebrations had barely wound down before the welcome announcement by the Soil Association and the Fairtrade Foundation of a new collaborative pilot project that may, at last, bring the fair trade system to our own local farmers. Half of this project concerns the two organisations working together to steamline the certification process so that more Organic and Fairtrade products will be launched in 2003. The other half of the pilot will also start to explore how products from the UK could carry the Fairtrade Mark.
The Fairtrade Foundation and Soil Association hope to share their expertise of their successful international certification schemes and work to start thinking of how criteria can be drawn up for UK Farmers. Both organisations anticipate problems but stress that they do not wish for any new UK Fairtrade Mark to exclude NON organic farmers.
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation says, "While our priority remains to assist producers in the South who suffer most from the problems of world trade, we recognise that many of these problems are shared by farmers in developed countries as well. This trial with the Soil Association will help us learn how the philosophy and principles of our work can best be applied in the UK context."
"We are keen to extend the benefits of Fairtrade to more producers and to enable consumers to express their preference for Organic Fairtrade products with the confidence that our respective assurance schemes provide"
Already there are a number of products carrying both the FAIRTRADE Mark and the Soil Association Mark. These include Green & Black's Maya gold chocolate and cocoa powder, Equal Exchange coffee, honey, tea and cocoa, Cafedirect coffee and tea, Fyffes bananas, Agrofair bananas and mangoes, Percol coffee and Traidcraft sugar. The first products to appear on shop shelves as a result of the project are expected to be grapes from South Africa and citrus fruits from Egypt.
For more information see 'The best of both worlds - organic and Fairtrade' press release on the Fairtrade Foundation wesite.
The link between farmers in developing Countries and those in the UK also fighting for a fair price for their produce has been made in Garstang for some time. See here for further information on the Garstang Farmers Link.
An Early Day Motion Double for Garstang
After Garstang became a Fairtrade Town in the year 2000 local MP, Hilton Dawson tabled an Early Day Motion No. 694 congratulating the town on it’s achievement. On Tuesday 26th November 2002 the Co-op made the momentous decision to use only fair trade cocoa from the Ghanaian cocoa farming cooperative Kuapa Kokoo in all its own brand chocolate products, including four varieties of chocolate bars and a tasty chocolate fudge cake. This decision will double the sales of fair trade chocolate in the UK overnight. Within hours of the decision being made, Hilton Dawson MP tabled the Early Day Motion No.190 welcoming the Co-op’s announcement, celebrating Garstang’s twinning with New Koforidua, urging supermarkets to follow the Co-op’s example and towns and cities to follow Garstang’s example and recognizing that Fairtrade is a global concept that should apply to farmers in Britain as well as those in Developing Countries.
Garstang appears on BBC 2’s Working Lunch
Less than one week after Garstang’s Ghana Evening the BBC visited Garstang to interview local people involved with the Fairtrade Town initiative. The report will be shown on the programme ‘Working Lunch’ to be shown at 12.30pm on Wednesday 4th December.
