Become a Fair Trade Parish

Many parishes take the opportunity to promote fair trade by running stalls selling tea, coffee, biscuits, cakes and other fair trade products.

Fair trade directly promotes the interests of farmers and producers in developing countries who get a higher price for their fairly traded goods.

Through church stalls, coffee mornings, and wine tastings, Parish Contacts and their friends can also use fair trade events as a way of fundraising for SCIAF.

Last year, St Andrew's and Edinburgh became the first ever Catholic Fairtrade Archdiocese in Scotland. They have joined many other parishes around Scotland to make a difference to the lives of thousands of farmers and their families living in poverty in developing countries.

One of the Fairtrade parishes in the archdiocese is St Joseph's in Whitburn. Andrina Dunlop tells their story:

“We had been promoting Fairtrade for a while and it took us about three months to tick all the boxes required to become a Fairtrade Church. One of the great things about the Fairtrade project has been working with other churches. We were able to draw on their experience and that helped a lot.

"Now the Justice and Peace Group supply the parish with tea and coffee from Traidcraft for Sunday breakfasts and for special events such as Christmas we add other Fairtrade products to our stock. It is amazing how, given goodwill on all sides, things just seem to happen - and that's how it has been for us.”

SCIAF is part of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum - find out how you can get involved.