Youth in Action - Fair Trade

We formed a Social Action group last year and decided that our first initiative would be to create awareness of the importance of Fair Trade and offer said products at our school. We enlisted the help of Zack Gross (MCIC) and Duane Nichol (City of Selkirk) to educate, support and inspire us in our journey. We hosted a Fair Trade presentation for my Grade 7 classes (now Grade 8) in June with our mentors so we would have a starting point and access to the information we need. We have decided to create Fair Trade signage throughout our school, conduct Fair Trade presentations for our school at Assemblies (we have planned 2), and have Fair Trade Facts in our daily announcements. We also plan on conducting an inventory of Fair Trade products available in Selkirk which will be published on the City of Selkirk's web page to encourage all citizens of Selkirk and any other visitors to the site, to visit the businesses that carry Fair Trade products and encourage more businesses to start carrying them. We will also purchase Fair Trade products to offer for sale weekly at our school so our students, staff and families will have access to a sample of Fair Trade Products. We plan on buying more products with the profits to keep this initiative sustainable. We have contacted many businesses to see what products they carry and intend to visit The Fresh Carrot in Winnipeg to sample some products and make stronger connections with the Fair Trade community.

Update (May 29, 2017)

On May 9th, 2017 École Selkirk Junior High's Youth in Action social justice committee hosted a Fair Trade Celebration!
This year my students have worked hard and created a Social Justice group called Youth in Action learning about Fair Trade, creating awareness about the global implications, researching and accessing resources, implementing initiatives and partnering with cooperative agencies, all to further our goal of bringing Fair Trade consciousness and accessibility to Fair Trade products to our school with the intent of achieving Fair Trade School Designation.

We have partnered with Zack Gross, Outreach Coordinator/Fair Trade with MCIC, John Forsyth with Florists Supply, The City of Selkirk Fair Trade Steering Committee, Selkirk Transit and Selkirk Biz coordinating Fair Trade initiatives and a product inventory of Selkirk. The City of Selkirk will be receiving Fair Trade Town designation at this time and we are putting in our application this week for Fair Trade School Designation.

We were honoured to have had in attendance, Sean McHugh, Executive Director of the Canadian Fair Trade Network, based in Vancouver (www.cftn.ca), who came to visit our school and city, we had dignitaries from the City of Selkirk such as our Mayor and City Counselors as well as the Fair Trade Steering Committee members we have been meeting with regularly and planning initiatives with, Superintendant Scott Kwasnitza and of course my Grade 7 French Immersion students "Youth in Action" were in attendance and ran a chocolate taste testing booth to see if Fair Trade Chocolate tasted better than regular chocolate? And it sure did!!