Andy Drozdziak
A Catholic primary school club has launched a campaign to convince the Government to provide schools with Fairtrade bananas and accused the Government of ‘setting a bad example’ by not doing so.
The International Club, an extra-curricular club at St Peter’s school, Leatherhead, were shocked to discover that the bananas sent to school as part of a Government-funded free fruit scheme for KS1 are not Fairtrade.
The International Club is a group of around twelve children aged 7-11 who meet weekly to reach out to people all around the world.
Every day, every child aged 4-7 in state-funded schools (approx. 2.3million children), receives a free piece of fruit through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS), which is funded by the Department of Health.
Deputy Head Marianne McDonnell explained the students’ response.
“International Club thought that not using Fairtrade bananas was setting a really bad example, and so they wrote letters to our local MPs to ask them to help them change the bananas that are sent to school to Fairtrade,” she told the Universe.
The International Club’s efforts were rewarded by receiving support from local MP Chris Grayling (CON), who has said that he will write to the Secretary of State for Education and put this to her. He has also signed a petition in support of the student’s scheme, which Marianne McDonnell spoke about.
“We talked about other avenues of raising concerns with the government including petitioning parliament but, as children, they can’t submit an official one themselves,” she said.
“With (headteacher)Mr McKenzie’s permission, I started a petition to Government on behalf of International Club to request that they change all the bananas in the SVFS to Fairtrade bananas.”
Mrs McDonnell explained that St Peter’s Catholic primary school has been part of the Fairtrade Schools Scheme for many years.
“We teach children about the issues around Fairtrade as well as using Fairtrade products where we can and working to raise awareness of Fairtrade in our local community,” she said, adding that she would like Universe readers to add their signatures to the petition.
“International Club have been working hard to share our petition with our school community and also with our diocesan Family but we need more support,” she said.
“We need 10,000 signatures for the Government to respond to the petition and 100,000 signatures for it to be debated in Parliament. The deadline is 26th January 2023 so please feel free to share it far and wide: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619553.”
International Club have also made a campaign video to explain more about the problem. Club members shared their experiences of the whole campaign.
Emilia,9, said it was ‘fun being in International Club’, whilst Olivia, 10, simply said: “We just want to help people around the world.”
Livvy, 10, recognised that it is an ‘amazing opportunity to help other people who don’t have opportunities like us’, whilst Eva, 10, said: “I’m looking forward to seeing if we can achieve all these signatures.”
Sarah Brazier, Head of Campaigns and Thought Leadership at the Fairtrade Foundation, paid tribute to the ‘amazing’ efforts of the International Club.
“This is an amazing campaign led by young people to create change at a time when it is needed more than ever,” she told the Universe.
“The pupils at St Peter’s are stepping up to show the government how an initiative to support pupils here can also improve the lives of banana growers on the other side of the world.”