A very Big Fairtrade and Local Lunch in Garstang
On Sunday 19 July 2009 over seventy people in Garstang braved stormy skies to take part in a very special Big Fairtrade Lunch on the Millennium Green. Friends, family and neighbours in Garstang celebrated the first year of the Big Lunch with a people’s picnic combining the best of Fairtrade and local and were joined by their Fairtrade friends in New Koforidua, Ghana and Media, the first Fair Trade Town in the United States, who also held their own Big Lunches.
Bruce Crowther, Chair of the Garstang Fairtrade Steering Group said: ‘The Big Lunch is a great opportunity for friends and neighbours across the UK to come together, laugh, share food and get to know each other. As the world’s first Fairtrade Town it was only right that Garstang should join with our Ghanaian and American Fairtrade friends in a meal made up of Fairtrade and local produce. We all have an interest in forming and sustaining strong communities across the world and as well as being good fun, The Big Lunch is one way to help us build those communities’.
People in Garstang, New Koforidua and Media shared lunch alongside an estimated one million people who took to the streets to celebrate food, people and community at over 8,000 Big Lunches across the UK. The Mayor and Mayoress of Garstang joined with local Fairtrade supporters in raising a glass of sparkling Fairtrade wine before everyone tucked in to their local Lancashire cheeses, chutneys, sausages and beef burgers complimented by fresh Fairtrade fruit, nuts, chocolate and wine and a special Big Lunch cake made with Fairtrade sugar.
While Garstang enjoyed their Big Lunch in the rain Stephanie Gaboriault from Media, the first Fair Trade Town in the USA woke up to a sunny day to enjoy her Fairtrade and local produce breakfast of local yoghurt, Fairtrade sugar, Fairtrade vanilla and Fairtrade coffee.
Simultaneously, the Big Lunch in New Koforidua took place right in the middle of the rainy season in Ghana when heavy downpours are frequent, but as in Garstang the weather could not keep people away from the celebrations. A total of 258 people, including children from the various Churches and Mosque came together in the Presbyterian church to take part in the event. Muslims and Christians, the Queen Mother, other dignitaries and residents all dined together in the knowledge that they were also joined by their Fairtrade friends in the UK and the USA.