Fairtrade status something to be proud of'
Thatcham town’s Fairtrade award is ‘important for whole community’ say mayor and retailers
THATCHAM'S mayor and town centre retailers have said how achieving Fairtrade status, which was awarded at the end of last year, was something of which the town could be
proud.
Thatcham achieved the status after some 18 months worth of work, and various organisations and townsfolk helped to achieve the goal by stocking Fairtrade products, promoting the Fairtrade message and by sitting on the Fairtrade steering group.
The manager at Waitrose in The Kingsland Centre, Steve Mason, said: “It's important for the whole community to get involved in more ethical trade as a social responsibility and the way we operate in the world.
“If everyone takes a step forward then a million people will take a million steps forward.
“Even though Thatcham is small, it raises awareness among schoolchildren and other people in the community that we can do this from a business point of view – and ethically.”
He added: “Everyone who works here (except for me) lives in Thatcham and we feel very much part of the community, so this was something to be proud of.”
The manager at the Co-operative in the Broadway, Paul Roberts, said that he was there to offer as much support and help as he could to the council as the Co-operative stores already stocked a large range of Fairtrade products.
He said: “It was important that we worked together with the council and the local community so that we could have a big impact.
“It's important that we continue to maintain the focus with Fairtrade.
“You can lose sight of it going forward, but we have to maintain it and keep investing so the general public are aware of it.”
Town mayor Lee Dillon praised the efforts of the local community.
He said: “Without the support of local business we would not have been able to reach this status.
“Thatcham works best when we all work together.
“The aim of the town council and the aim of local business is the same – to make Thatcham a place where people want to visit and shop and by working together on projects like this we can show that Thatcham offers a different shopping experience from the soulless big shopping centres that surround us, as we offer a mixture of quality chain stores and independent retailers.”
Now that the Fairtrade status had been achieved, however, it did not mean that the work should stop there, he added.
There were activities already being planned for Fairtrade fortnight and they would be encouraging yet more businesses to stock Fairtrade products.
The campaign was launched at the end of 2009 and, in order to become a Fairtrade town, Thatcham needed to have a certain number of retailers stocking Fairtrade products per population count.
Fairtrade is a tool for development that ensures disadvantaged farmers and workers in developing countries get a better deal through the use of the international Fairtrade Mark – a registered certification label for products sourced from producers in developing countries.