Fairtrade is not just about tea and coffee. As part of this year’s UK-wide Fairtrade Fortnight, Abergavenny Fairtrade Group is holding a buffet breakfast featuring the wide range of Fairtrade ingredients now available to buy in the town’s shops. The mayor of Abergavenny, Councillor Maureen Powell, is hosting the Big Breakfast in the Town Hall on Saturday 5th March at 9.30am. All are welcome to sit down for breakfast in order to to stand up for farmers.
As Martin Luther King famously said, ‘before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world’. But despite our dependence on farmers and workers for the foods, drinks and products that we love, there are about 795 million people around the world who are under-nourished. That’s a staggering number.
The people who grow the food we take for granted can’t always feed their own families. When people are paid a fairer price, they can have more control over their lives when times are hard, and worry less about how they will feed their families. Whether it’s the extra cash in their pockets or being able to expand their farms to grow more food to eat, Fairtrade means many farmers and workers are able to fulfil a basic human need – to put enough food on the table for the people they care about, all year round.
As well as enjoying a delicious Fairtrade breakfast, those who come along to the Abergavenny event on 5th March will have the chance to hear from those with first-hand knowledge about the challenges facing farmers around the world. Speakers will include local farmer Chris Wardle – being paid a fair price for what they produce is of course crucial to farmers in the UK too.
Fairtrade Fortnight runs from 29th February until 13rd March this year. Other events planned by the Abergavenny Fairtrade group during this period include a public meeting on Wednesday 9th March at 7.30 at the Abergavenny Community Centre in Park Street (the former Park Street School). There will be speakers from local organisations that sell Fairtrade goods – Abergavenny-Yirgacheffe Community Link, Love Zimbabwe and Zimele UK. They will talk about how the work they do in Wales makes a difference to the lives of the people who produce those goods, and to the communities in which they live.
Just as a dog is not only for Christmas, Fairtrade is not only for one fortnight a year. The local Fairtrade Group is active year-round in the Abergavenny community, celebrating our status as a Fairtrade Town and encouraging even more local cafés and groups to serve Fairtrade produce. Now entering its 10th anniversary year, the group wants to put on the public record its gratitude to founder member Katrina Gass for her steadfast work in keeping Fairtrade on the agenda in Abergavenny. The group is always pleased to welcome new members. Contact Mary Morgan, membership secretary, on marynepal@gmail, to find out how you can get involved.
Cath Barton
