FAIRTRADE EVENTS 2009

Fairtrade was prominent throughout the year in 2009,

May Day topic at JustShare for 2009 was Fairtrade, in celebration of London becoming a Fairtrade City. We teamed up with Trading Visions and the London Fairtrade Campaign to put on a Fairtrade Fair outside the Royal Exchange. Live music came from RumHoney and Louis Cole, and there were Fairtrade stalls and samples from Divine, Dubble, Liberation, Cafédirect, The Co-operative, Shared Interest, Traidcraft, Stellar Organics, the London Diocese Fairtrade Campaign and the City of London Fairtrade Campaign. Sophi Tranchell and Nick Saltmarch gave keynote speeches encouraging the use of ethically-sourced products in offices, homes, schools & places of worship.

As well as May Day, we hosted a Fairtrade Conference (‘Make It Happen’) for the diocese in January, attended by representatives from churches across London and aiming to help achieve Fairtrade Diocese status.

During Fairtrade Fortnight we held a well-attended Fairtrade wine tasting combined with a fairly-traded Afghani carpet sale, in partnership with La Riojana and Afghan Action.

The crypt was transformed with beautifully woven Afghan rugs rather bravely spread amongst tables of Argentinian wine. We are grateful to La Riojana for generously providing Fairtrade wine after our Lectures throughout the year.

The Traidcraft Big Brew gave us the opportunity for another novel Fairtrade event. The Big Brew encourages churches to open their doors to the public and serve free Fairtrade drinks on a designated day in the summer. Taking advantage of the City of London Festival’s Street Piano initiative, which saw pianos placed in outdoor venues across the City for passers-by to play ad hoc, we held a Street Piano Big Brew.

We served free Fairtrade tea, coffee and wine around the piano in the churchyard, inviting passers-by to sample the Fairtrade refreshments whilst playing or listening to the piano in the sunshine.