Host a Big Fairtrade Lunch with Friends and Neighbours
Make the of most of the hot weather and bring your neighbourhood together, by hosting a day to celebrate people, community and Fairtrade food at Big Lunch street parties across the UK on Sunday 19 July.
The Big Lunch is the idea of the Eden Project and is a bring-your-own, open-air party giving everyone a chance to get to know their neighbours, share food and have fun. As Britain celebrates its local communities, making Fairtrade part of the Big Lunch is also a way of helping communities across the world and empowering farmers in developing countries to create their own brighter, more sustainable future through a better trade deal. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to pass the Fairtrade habit on to.
An Eden Project initiative with millions of events planned around the country, The Big Lunch is designed to bring about Human Warming – the glow that comes from simple acts of sharing and celebrating what it is to be human. The Eden Project, based in Cornwall, sells a range of Fairtrade products in their shop and café, including coffee, tea and chocolate.
The UK’s first Fairtrade town Garstang in Lancashire is already planning their own Big Fairtrade Lunch. They will sit down to eat their favourite and local goodies at the same time as New Koforidua, a cocoa farming community in Ghana who will be having lunch, and Media, the first Fairtrade town in the US, who’ll be eating breakfast.
Fairtrade Towns Coordinator, Hannah Reed said: ‘The Fairtrade Foundation is supporting the Big Lunch because it shares the belief that ordinary people and ordinary acts do bring about positive change. Fairtrade is about people working together and using choice to change the way trade works. That’s why we are asking people, especially those from Fairtrade Towns, faith groups, schools and universities, to support this wonderful initiative and host an event.’
For those who want recipe ideas for The Big Lunch, The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook, edited by leading food writer and TV chef Sophie Grigson, pulls together mouthwatering new recipes using delicious Fairtrade ingredients. Containing over 150 recipes from Fairtrade supporters plus high-profile chefs and celebrities including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Antony Worrall Thompson, the book is a must for Fairtrade foodies everywhere.
Summer recipes – bringing together the best of Fairtrade and local produce - are featured on the Fairtrade Foundation’s website where there are also ideas for Big Lunch games, such a as Fairtrade coconut shy and Fairtrade cotton sock throwing contests. Or why not organise a five-a-side street footie tournament with Fairtrade footballs? If you need decorations you can go online and order bunting, balloons or an inflatable banana. For more information go to www.fairtrade.org.uk/
Lastly, encourage friends and family to join by going to the Eden Project’s Big Lunch blog at www.thebiglunch.com/
Please contact Faith Mall on 0207 440 8597 or 07766 504947 for images or recipes information.
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Notes to Editors
1. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 70% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
2. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys & cotton wool.
3. For more information on The Big Lunch go to www.thebiglunch.com/