Fair Trade

Here at Barn Hill Methodist Church we support the Fair Trade movement in various ways. Most notably we sell an impressive variety of fairly traded goods in our coffee shop “The Well”, which is at the Barn Hill end of our church. It is open every Wednesday, Thursday & Friday between 10.00am & 4.00pm and on Saturdays between 9.30pm & 1.00pm. This forms part of our mission to the people of Stamford, and is also part of our mission to the poorest people in the world by supporting fair trade. Profits from the shop are given to help rebuild the church in Sierra Leone. More details from George & Jan Hetherington, 01780 757439.

So what is Fair Trade?

Fair trade is an alternative approach to conventional international trade. It is a trading partnership that aims at sustainable development for excluded and disadvantaged producers. It seeks to do this by providing better trading conditions, by awareness raising and by campaigning.

It has to include:

• Paying fair prices to producers that reflect the true cost of production;
• Supporting producer organisations in their social and environmental projects;
• Promoting gender equality in pay and working conditions;
• Advising on product development;
• Committing to long term relationships to provide stability and security;
• Campaigning to highlight the unequal system of world trade that places profit above human rights and threatens our environment.

Fair trade is not just about trading, but also about changing the unfair structure of world trade and so building a fairer society.