“It was the best day ever!” Diamond Wood Community Academy Y1 pupil
We have to agree! We love hosting our Fairtrade Conference for Primary Schools and for our TENTH year we welcomed schools from across Kirklees to The Tolson Museum in Huddersfield to celebrate Fairtrade. A full day of interactive workshops to learn about the importance of Fairtrade and the difference it makes to producer communities.
We were thrilled to welcome The Fairtrade Foundation to this year’s conference. Students listened to real-life stories about Fairtrade tea farmers. “I am asking everyone in the UK to buy more of our Fairtrade tea so that more farmers can benefit, once you take tea to your kitchens much will come to our communities.” Linner Ruto, Fairtrade Tea Farmer. They discovered how the Fairtrade premium paid to farming communities has changed lives: schools on the Nilgiris Tea Estate in India now have units for safe drinking water; communities in Sonokwek now have access to a dispensary; in the Kapkoros Tea Factory area tree planting schemes have improved wetland areas and in Kenya farmers have received financial management training and leadership skills.
“The conference will help progress our learning in school and how we can all contribute to society to a fairer society and make the world a better place.” Pentland I&N School
Buying Fairtrade makes a huge difference, and we always welcome Suma Wholefoods to our conference to share their role in supply chains getting Fairtrade products to supermarket shelves. Students LOVE exploring the Suma truck (powered by renewable gas from food waste!) and finding out lots about transport as products make their journey across the world.
“The fairandfunky conference is excellent with a super range of interactive activities to show the breadth of Fairtrade. It fits with our sustainability strand of our school curriculum and gives our pupils a positive unique experience.” Diamond Wood Community Academy
In the fairandfunky workshop we talk all things breakfast and in doing so students realise we all depend on farmers for everything we eat…whether that’s porridge, cherry jam on toast, pancakes, cups of tea, orange juice or bagels! Finding the Fairtrade mark on products means the farmers who grow our food are paid fairly for the work they do, so everyone made their own Fairtrade mark to carry the Fairtrade message back to school and home. Our job as consumers is to search out Fairtrade as much as possible. And as we looked through a Fairtrade shopping bag at the end of the session, we discover there’s so many to choose from!
But the favourite product? CHOCOLATE! And Coeur De Xocolat shares his own personal story of chocolate. He works with Fairtrade farmers to source cocoa to make, what one child described as “THE BEST CHOCOLATE I’VE EVER TASTED!” Renowned chocolatier David shares the history of chocolate and shows how chocolate tasting is done by professionals. It’s a popular workshop!
“A well organised fun and exciting event. It’s a chance for our school councillors to represent our school and spend time with children from other schools. The message of Fairtrade came through clearly and we will take the messages back to share with the whole school.” Lindley CE Infant School
The conference ended with us all coming together for certificate presentations and goody bags! Schools left with Fairtrade tea and coffee for their staffrooms, chocolate to share and everybody took a bag of Fairtrade mango for the journey home. At fairandfunky we empower people to take their own little steps to change the world and there is no better way to do that than to support Fairtrade, choose Fairtrade, talk about Fairtrade and enjoy Fairtrade. Buying Fairtrade connects us to the people behind the food we eat and the products we use every day; it’s a simple step we can all take whoever we are.
“An annual event for our eco committee, we really enjoy the Fairtrade Conference, it’s informative, educational and gets us all thinking.”
Meltham CE School
A big thank you to organisations who supported our 10th Fairtrade Conference: Suma Wholefoods, Stafflex, Central England Coop, Coop and The Fairtrade Foundation. We couldn’t do it with you!
See you all in 2026!
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