Saturday 30 September saw the forum's first clothes swap event. Volunteers and stalls filled the church hall at St Lawrence's church between 2 and 4, where we welcomed the public. Attendees brought three items of clothing they rarely wear any more - and we all have plenty of those, don't we? In exchange for a £3 entrance fee shoppers were treated … [Read more...]

The York Fair Trade Forum was delighted to help the Co-op celebrate its switch to using only Fairtrade cocoa in all own brand goods. This affects 200 products, from tiramisu right down to the chocolate sprinkles on the shop's doughnuts. And as a result, the amount of Fairtrade cocoa the Co-op sources has risen from 526 to 2,848 tonnes. The move is … [Read more...]

York Fair Trade Forum members were delighted to have the chance to attend some of the BAFTS (British Assocation for Fair Trade Shops and Suppliers) annual conference which was held this year in York. As you can see, Fair Trade Ted had a great time looking round the lovely stalls and doing what he likes best - posing with anything fair trade … [Read more...]

York Fair Trade Forum was involved in two very successful events to mark this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight. The first was a coffee morning on 7 March co-hosted with our friends at York St John, a Fairtrade university. Following this year's theme, Take a Fairtrade break, we offered our old favourites, cakes and biscuits made with fairly traded … [Read more...]

The last of our summer event outings was at the first-ever family fun day organised by Woodthorpe Community Group on Woodthorpe Green to the south-west of York city centre. Yet again the sun shone, though the wind was far stronger than a summer breeze. This wasn’t ideal for the first appearance of our new game for children, “sticker pong”, which … [Read more...]

Yet again the sun shone on York Fair Trade Forum’s stall, this time at Rowntree Park’s Big Birthday Bash. The Park was celebrating its 95th birthday and the fair teemed with people of all ages enjoying the weather and the many attractions. We’ve experienced holding stalls in storms, icy temperatures and gales, so we were delighted that all we had … [Read more...]

There was a wonderful turnout at West Bank Park fair. Even the weather smiled on us - although at times it was a bit windy so thanks Dave for doing a great job holding down the Forum's gazebo (look carefully at the photos)! Many people stopped to look at the stall and take away information leaflets. Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, also came … [Read more...]

York Fair Trade Forum is delighted to announce that our new book is hot off the press. Fair's Fair - Inspiring stories of Fair Trade champions from the 18th century to the present day is the vision of Forum members Kathryn Tissiman and Margot Brown, and the result of much hard work by them with help from many others. We’re very excited about the … [Read more...]

The build-up to the Forum’s fundraiser at St Crux, at the end of the Shambles in York city centre, involved a huge amount of organisation as well as cake-baking, craft-making and scouring homes for pre-loved books and bric-à-brac, not to mention brand new unwanted presents. At last the big day dawned – Thursday 12 May 2016 – and many of the team … [Read more...]

The 5th Annual Yorkshire Fairtrade Schools Conference took place on the 22nd March in the chapel at York St John University. After the opportunity to enjoy free Fairtrade drinks and cakes, and look round some stalls selling fairly traded products, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Alyson Tobin, opened the … [Read more...]