DID you know that the Bury Fairtrade Steering Group has now been in existence for one year?

We are working towards registration of Bury with the Fairtrade Foundation.

To achieve this, we need to list all those organisations and establishments across the borough who are using Fairtrade products or can offer support for fair trade.This includes community organisations, churches, businesses, retailers and caterers.

We need to identify community organisations (clubs, societies and voluntary organisations) that already support or who will engage in some Fairtrade activity i.e., provide beverages that are Fairtrade-produced, and possibly mark Fairtrade Fortnight February 28 in some way.

Some churches are already registered with the Fairtrade Foundation, and we will be attempting to contact most of the others.

In the meantime, I would be grateful to hear about your church’s approach to Fairtrade Fortnight. Other religious groups also count, and the target figure given by the foundation is 50 per cent, which would mean around 60 for Bury.

We have identified a sufficient number of retailers dealing in Faitrade products to allow us to register, but we have only just secured the required number of caterers.

A significant number of workplaces are also required. These are places that cannot support the campaign by selling Fairtrade products but will get involved by making Fairtrade products available to staff and clients. We will be making some direct approaches, but if your place of work supports fairtrade in any way, please get in touch.

If you are a member of any organisation outlined above which currently uses Fairtrade products and/or you can influence it to use Fairtrade products, please ring me 0161 761 6856.

Peter Roscoe Secretary Bury Fairtrade Steering Committee