A Little Fair Trade Tale

As some of you may be aware by now, prior to having Burton I owned my own cafe in a town called Great Torrington. It was only a small little business but it was mostly busy and there was a great sense of community among the regulars and my staff and I.

In 2007 Great Torrington put a bid in to become a Fair Trade town and in order to make this happen the towns businesses needed to demonstrate that they used products which were Fair Trade. A local lady took on the huge task of trying to get local businesses on board by asking them to become more Fair Trade. As a fellow Torrington business owner, I wanted to do my bit and join in with what I believed was good thing, not just for the town's reputation, but because I would be helping the producers of  certain consumables receive a fair price for their goods. 

I already sold Fair Trade fruit juice cartons and freshly ground coffee, but seeing as though Torrington was going all out to get Fair Trade status I decided to stock some more food and drink related products. So I bought in Fair Trade tea and sugar sachets too. One of my most popular drink 'specials' was the hot chocolate deluxe, you know the ones - topped with squirty cream, marshmallows and accompanied by a flake ..... mmmmmm!! Rather than have to increase my prices for this or the regular hot chocolate drinks, I decided to sell Fair Trade hot chocolate by Traidcraft alongside my normal one, and give my customers the choice whether or not to spend a little more and have Fair Trade. I was pleasantly surprised that many people chose the Fair Trade hot chocolate!

Torrington was awarded Fair Trade status and after one Saturday in September, we participating business owners were invited to attend an award ceremony in the town square to be presented their certificate by the mayor to recognise our efforts and show that we sold Fair Trade products.

 I couldn't attend as Saturdays was my busiest day, so the mayor came and saw me instead and he and I ended up having our photo taken for the local newspaper! 

This is a post sponsored by Traid Craft, but the story and its events about me and my cafe is true and I did buy from Traidcraft