Dear Friends,
I recieved this e-mail today and found it very interesting.
Most of you are aware (I hope) that my work is all about raising awareness
of global and ethical issues in business ansd economics. Much of this work
we do in schools and we try to encourage the participants (students) to
take responsible action on some of the issues we cover. In a number of
schools I have known the pupils to TRY to get rid of the NESTLE vending
machines in and around their schools (if you would like to find out why
some people don't like Nestle I suggest you visit www.babymilkaction.org)
with no luck. Apparently Nestle have contracts with a large proportion of
schools (and health centres which I find ironic) and there aren't
alterntaives. Well maybe not for much longer...
2Dear Finbarr
I am currently trying to promote fair trade in vending in schools. With
the help of a Bolton company it is now possible for schools to have
fairtrade and organic snack vending.
Most schools have a lot of vending already but seem unaware of the
ethical dimensions in this concerning both trade and health. I am aware
that a number of schools in the past have tried to introduce fair trade
products but have been unable to find a sustainable way of doing this.
I may have cracked this with the good will of Scantech Packaging. They
have set up a new venture called fair- traders (www.fair-traders.co.uk)
and are able to provide a variety of fair trade solutions for schools.
So far St Mary's Catholic High School, Astley have committed to a fully
serviced contract starting September 2002, and Ampleforth College,
Yorkshire are using fair-traders as a one stop wholesaler to provide
the full range of fair trade and organic products.
I hope to see this expanding soon and would be delighted if you could
support this in the work you do, particularly with a link to the web
site from your site. Schools in the North West particularly could
access the full service now and be able to supply their pupils with
fair trade and organic chocolate, crisps, snacks and cans.
I teach at All Saints Catholic College, Dukinfield where I hope to make
some progress soon.
Fair-traders is a profit making company which recognises that for this
venture to work schools have to get a reasonable slice of the pie too!
I believe that if this venture can take of then it will become fairly
unstoppable and we could see fair trade products as commonplace in many
UK schools.
I hope this is of interest and hope to hear from you soon.
Yours
Frank Thompson
PS Just found out that the TImes briefly covered this venture on
Saturday 14th September!"
Best wishes
Finbarr
Finbarr Carter ([log in to unmask])
Project Co-ordinator
'Just Business'
www.jusbiz.org
Norfolk Education and Action for Development
38 Exchange Street, Norwich, NR2 1AX
Tel: 01603 610993
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Registered Charity: 1010853
Registered company: 2237 424
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