We are all connected – people and planet. In our busy lives it’s easy to forget that there are people behind the products we use and buy everyday. It’s important to stop and think about the people who sew our clothes, make our many things, deliver our products and grow our food. And that’s what we do in our Fairtrade workshops.
Do you know where you favourite foods come from? In our Fairtrade Superhero workshop we focus on chocolate – Do you know how chocolate is made? Do you know where and how cocoa is grown? Do you know how cocoa travels to us? Do you know where the factories are? Or how your favourite products are made? These are just some of the questions we ask that result in students putting together a supply chain of chocolate. Students are always amazed at how many people are involved in a bar of chocolate appearing on the shop shelves; and with the majority of profits from the sales of a chocolate bar going to the chocolate companies, they are shocked at how unfair the chocolate supply chain can be. How do we make it fair for the producers at the beginning of the supply chain?
Fairtrade is a way to make it fair. When chocolate companies use Fairtrade cocoa (and sugar, vanilla, nuts and fruits!) to make their chocolate they are paying producers a fair price and a real difference is made. Fairtrade farmers are able to invest in their families futures and in their communities. They can afford to feed their families, to send their children to school and develop their farms. Fairtrade empowers farmers; and when you buy Fairtrade you are taking a little step to change the world. You are choosing to make a difference – you are a Fairtrade Superhero!
Using recycled Fairtrade packaging students create their own Fairtrade superhero mask. All the while looking for the Fairtrade mark and making sure it is there for all to see. The masks head out of the classroom to share the message of Fairtrade at home. Children are encouraged to talk about Fairtrade, to spot the Fairtrade mark when they are shopping and where possible, buy Fairtrade – to be a Fairtrade Superhero!
We are very lucky to have a community of Fairtrade superheroes in Calderdale. We are working with 10 primary schools this term thanks to funding from our friends Suma Wholefoods. They themselves are a business taking little steps to change the world. A workers cooperative, based in Elland, they are committed to supplying the most sustainable and most delicious products to shops around the UK. Strong supporters of Fairtrade, recycling and the environment they are perfect partners for fairandfunky! You may spot some of their old packaging in the SCRAPtastic creations we make.
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