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Last year Kent became a Fairtrade University. That means we’re committed to making Fairtrade products available on campus and raising awareness of Fairtrade.
Products which carry the FAIRTRADE Mark guarantee a fair deal to producers in developing countries to help them work their way out of poverty. Fairtrade producers also receive a ‘community premium’ to invest in local health or education provision or improved production methods, and are committed to farming in ways which respect the environment.
Becoming a Fairtrade University was a joint achievement of staff and students. The Students’ Union and the University’s senior management are fully committed in their support. Kent Hospitality and the Gulbenkian Café use Fairtrade products, you can get Fairtrade coffee at the Wicked Cafés in the Lighthouse, the Sports Centre and the Library, and at the campus shops you can buy Fairtrade wines, coffee, tea, drinking chocolate, orange juice, chocolate, bananas and mangoes and other fruit, and cakes and snacks. Sample some of these today, courtesy of the Co-op, which supplies the campus shops and has been a generous supporter of Fairtrade.
We need new students who are willing to campaign for Fairtrade, to devise imaginative activities to raise awareness, and possibly to serve on the University’s Fairtrade Steering Group. We need to do these things so that we can renew our Fairtrade University status at the end of the year.
Can you help? If so, please contact David Reason, Chair of the Fairtrade Steering Group on the email below.
For further information email D.A.Reason@kent.ac.uk
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Why buy Fairtrade
Buying products with the Fairtrade Mark guarantees:
- farmers' organisations a fair and stable price for
their products
- extra income for farmers and plantation workers
to improve their lives
- greater respect for the environment
- smaller farmers a stronger position in world markets.
- a closer link between consumer and producer
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Fairtrade
district
Canterbury
District, including Whitstable and Herne Bay, is also
celebrating its recongition as a Fairtrade District
For more information go to the Canterbury
City Council fairtrade website.
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Forthcoming activities
Further details to come.
Previous activities
KENT RENEWS FAIRTRADE UNIVERSITY STATUS
In March 2007, we were delighted to hear that the Fairtrade Foundation had renewed the recognition of Kent as a Fairtrade University. To achieve this, we needed to demonstrate that support for Fairtrade on campus continues to grow, that the range of Fairtrade goods on sale is expanding, and that we’ve organised activities to raise awareness of Fairtrade.
FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT
Fairtrade Fortnight is a special focus every year for activities to publicise Fairtrade. This year Fairtrade Fortnight ran from 26 February to 11 March and a realhighlight during this time was the Fair Trade Fair in Rutherford College dining hall held on Wednesday 28 February. It featured stalls selling local produce and Fairtrade products, plus free samples of Fairtrade wine donated by the Co-op and delicious Fairtrade desserts devised by Kent Hospitality's Executive Head Chef, Jeff Stoddard. The event promoted the message that support for local produce and Fairtrade go hand in hand. Both are ways of helping small producers who often struggle to make a living compared to their larger competitors and also help to look after the environment. Buying local, cuts the impact of 'food miles' and products which carry the FAIRTRADE mark have been produced using methods which respect the environment.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor Keith Mander joined Rachel Forrester-Jones, Master of Rutherford College, and members of Rutherford JCC at the Rutherford Fair Trade Fair.
Keith Paulley with the mountain bike which he won in Kent Hospitality’s Fairtrade Wine prize draw. Keith is a big Fairtrade fan and enjoys shopping for his Fairtrade products from the Co-op.
Throughout Fairtrade Fortnight there were special Fairtrade promotions in the catering outlets on campus. The Gulbenkian Cafe Bar ran a special morning of free samples featuring local produce and Fairtrade. The Manager of the Gulbenkian Cafe Bar, Ben Silcock was also interviewed on Radio Kent.
Kent Hospitality ran a special promotion of Ochre Mountain Fairtrade wine at K-Bar, Mungo's, The Atom and Origins - anyone who bought a glass of the Ochre Mountain Fairtrade wine was able to enter a free prize draw to win a mountain bike. The winner of this competition, Keith Paullay can be seen in the above picture.
A Fairtrade stall was also held at the Kent Union's 'One World Week' Cultural Fair which was held on Friday 9 March.
The Fortnight ended with a Fairtrade themed Magic@Mungo's event on the evening of Friday 9 March.
HARRIET LAMB LECTURE
Harriet Lamb is joined by the Vice-Chancellor, David Melville, and representatives of Canterbury City Council and the Cathedral to publicise the new Fairtrade Guide to Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable.
Harriet Lamb CBE, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, has congratulated the University on becoming a Fairtrade University. Her Open Lecture on 16 February, delivered to a packed Keynes lecture theatre, was on ‘How your shopping is changing business’. The achievement a year ago, coinciding with the Cathedral becoming a Fairtrade Cathedral and the District becoming a Fairtrade District, had made Canterbury a unique ‘hat-trick city’, she said. Its ‘vibrant’ campaign was ‘a shining example of how a community can work together to change things.’
She emphasised that Fairtrade was not charity, but the means of empowering producers in developing countries so that, instead of being at the mercy of markets and big business, they are able to take control of their own economic future. The phenomenal year-on-year growth in sales of Fairtrade products was something which commercial firms would die for. Whereas they put millions of pounds into launching new products, the growth of Fairtrade was the work of dedicated volunteers and campaigners, especially in Fairtrade Towns and Fairtrade Universities. ‘This is your doing’, she told the audience.
2007 Fairtrade Guide (PDF)
Further information
If you want to get involved with Fair Trade at Kent
or simply want to find out more about what it all means
contact Natasha Welch (Secretary).
You can also visit the Oxfam and Fairtrade websites.
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