Fair trade and healthy eating

Some of the most well-known fair trade products are chocolate and sweets and for schools trying to support both fair trade and healthy eating there can sometimes appear to be a conflict!

However, lots of schools now successfully run fair trade initiatives whilst continuing to promote a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Here are some of the ways they do it:

• Daily tuckshops offering healthier Fairtrade snacks (dried fruit, nuts, cereal bars, fruit juices)

• Weekly "Fairtrade Friday" tuckshops selling Fairtrade chocolate as an "occasional treat"

• Using fair trade tea, coffee, sugar and snacks in the staff room

• Selling Geobars and other snacks at sports games and special events

• Holding a Fairtrade stall at parents' evenings, concerts and open evenings

• Taking Fairtrade out into the community on special occasions or for a community event

• Running a 'box' or 'bag' scheme - distributing Traidcraft catalogues to parents, collecting orders and distributing the delivery.

• Holding a Fairtrade stall after school for parents (especially in primary schools)

You could also contact your local Fairtrade Town or City steering groups (if you have one) to see how you could make more links with other local Fairtrade networks – they often love to have enthusiastic young people on board.

We're delighted that schools are encouraging their students to eat more healthily and develop a healthier, happier and more sustainable lifestyle – but of course the occasional treat is perfectly ok! What we want to do is to make fair trade the first choice for those occasional treats.
For schools wanting to achieve the Healthy Schools Award, an important aspect of that award is demonstrating that students are aware of the origins of their food and understand the implications of their food choices, not just on their own health but on the environment and on those who produce the food. So introducing fair trade to the school is a great way of educating students on the impact of their decisions and helping them understand the role they can play in fighting poverty through their choices.

Traidcraft is always on the lookout for new healthy snack ideas, so if your favourite snack is not currently available with fair trade ingredients, give us a shout and let us know.