ILMINSTER NEWS: All set for Fairtrade Fortnight

THE Ilminster Fairtrade group is inviting the local community to join them for breakfast in support of Fairtrade Fortnight 2016 - to highlight the severe lack of food security faced by farmers around the world and to support local farmers.

The group will join forces with the rest of the country by holding a Big Fairtrade Breakfast in local cafes and restaurants to support the farmers who grow some of the breakfast staples such as coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas and local producers of sausages, bacon and eggs.

They are inviting those who cannot join them to stage their own breakfast event too, so that as many people as possible can join in the Big Fairtrade Breakfast.

Roger Gurner, from llminster Fairtrade, said: “We have been campaigning for Fairtrade for 2 years and, since becoming South Somerset’s first Fairtrade town, we have learnt what a difference making farming viable and generating vital economic security makes to vulnerable communities.

“Farming is essentially the same wherever it happens throughout the world and is fundamental to our survival.

“It is easy to get behind Fairtrade Fortnight 2016 and we invite everyone in Ilminster to sit down for a Big Fairtrade Breakfast at one of the participating cafes or restaurants in and around town, or hold their own, and help keep driving a real change for farming communities in developing countries and supporting local farmers.”

Both Tesco and the Coop are offering Fairtrade Freebies during the fortnight and other Fairtrade Freebies can be picked up from Just Things in Silver Street, Ilminster.

People will see posters around town showing those cafes and restaurants that are helping promote the Big Breakfast Campaign and details can be found on the Fairtrade website www.ilminsterfairtrade.uk.

Rachael Sweet, communities’ campaigns manager for the Fairtrade Foundation, said: "Farming is the backbone of the world. It’s simply wrong that the people who produce what we eat go hungry themselves.

“Shoppers in the UK can change this by harnessing the power of a Fairtrade breakfast – so that farmers and workers behind our products can feel secure, knowing they can feed their families every day.

“And so we hope that as many people as possible will support Ilminster Fairtrade this Fairtrade Fortnight or hold their own Big Fairtrade Breakfast and ensure food security for world’s most vulnerable farming communities.”

Fairtrade Fortnight is a two-week campaign aiming to get shoppers, campaigners and businesses in the UK talking, thinking about and buying Fairtrade from Monday (February 29, 2016) through to Sunday, March 13, 2016.

You can find out more about Fairtrade Fortnight, and how to get involved in your local area, at fairtrade.org.uk/breakfast or www.ilminsterfairtrade.uk.” 

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