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Glossopdale Fairtrade Campaign
Glossop was
accepted as a Fairtrade Town at the end of May 2010. After four years
of campaigning, the whole of Glossopdale - which includes Glossop,
Hadfield, Charlesworth and Tintwistle - has achieved Fairtrade Zone
status by meeting five goals.
Despite the current economic climate, one area where sales remain
strong is Fairtrade. Sales of Fairtrade products - where producers in
the developing world are guaranteed to receive a fair price - continue
to grow as awareness increases.
The Glossop Fairtrade
Group is working to raise the profile of Fairtrade
locally. We are very keen to learn of local businesses who are
using Fairtrade
products. If you
are one of these please contact either Joanna Pollard (joanna.pollard@virgin.net)
or Chris Nudds
(chris.nudds@btopenworld.com)
so we can add your business to our lists.
To
advertise the campaign we ran stalls at a range of
local venues, including Glossop Carnival, Hadfield Show and Glossop
market. We hope to continue this, so please come and say hello if you
see us at a future event.
Alternatively you may like to attend a local campaign meeting. For
details of future meetings please check the calendar
section on this website, or for any further information please e-mail
the contacts above.
History
of Support for Fairtrade in Glossopdale, 1983–2010
Stewart Smith
of Zion Methodist Church set up his Traidcraft Stall at
the back of the church in July 1983 and in 2008 celebrated 25 years of
Fairtrade in Glossop.
In 1998 the
Glossopdale
Churches Justice & Peace Group was formed
and considered part of its brief was to promote Fairtrade, not only
through its churches but by organising events in the community in
Fairtrade
Fortnight each
year. The Justice
& Peace Group
also took the opportunity to support Fairtrade by including a Fairtrade
Food
Stall at all its campaigning events.
In 2005 the
Justice & Peace Group decided to encourage its churches
to work towards Fairtrade Church status and nine of the churches in
Glossopdale
have attained that status.
The Justice
& Peace Group called an open meeting in September 2006
with the aim of setting up a steering group to work towards Fairtrade
Town
status. The steering group led
by Mel Price
put together an action plan and began working on the
project –
deciding to work towards Fairtrade Zone status for the whole of
Glossopdale,
which includes Glossop, Hadfield, Charlesworth and Tintwistle.
Unfortunately the founding
officers of the group moved from Glossop at the end of 2007 and the
work slowed down. At this point
the Justice & Peace Group called another open meeting in
April 2009 and an enlarged steering group was formed – this
time bringing
together original members and adding many of the Church Fairtraders.
This group now
numbers some 28, with an average of 10 members at every
meeting. It goes
from strength to
strength. We now have representatives from the council, local
businesses,
organisations, schools and churches. |
| Glossopdale
Fairtrade Campaign marked Fairtrade Fortnight
(Monday, February 22
- Sunday, March 7,
2010) with a 'design a poster' competition which brought in more than
250 entries from seven schools. Details here. |
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