FAIRTRADE Fortnight has been celebrated in schools and churches across Craven with supporters doing their utmost to encourage people to change their eating habits.

There have been Fairtrade coffee mornings and afternoon teas at primary schools in Cracoe, Christ Church, Embsay, Glusburn, Grassington, Kettlewell and Kildwick.

The village Fairtrade group in Embsay and Eastby opened a pop up shop in the village hall and held a Fairtrade breakfast on Shrove Tuesday with pancakes and a selection of Fairtrade fillings on offer.

Pancakes and hot chocolate were also served at Glusburn School on Shrove Tuesday and the children were encouraged to bring in Fairtrade fruit to add to their pancake mid-morning break.

Children from three primary schools - Bentham, Cononley and Kildwick - attended a Fairtrade event for schools at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens, in Harrogate.

There have been Fairtrade bake-offs - including an impressive 83 entries from key stage two children at Water Street Primary in Skipton, ‘mug shot’ and guess the weight of the inflatable banana competitions, supermarket price hunts and lots of learning about what the Fairtrade mark means and why Fairtrade is important. Enthusiastic Fairtrade teams at Sutton CoE Primary, Lothersdale and Carleton schools organised and took on leadership roles during Fairtrade activity days.

A popular activity at Carleton and Lothersdale was designing a Fairtrade snack. Fairtrade beetle, a game designed by Water Street pupil Maggie Hudson also proved very popular.

St Stephens RC Primary took on the ‘90kg rice challenge’ the amount of rice sold that enables a farmer from Malawi to pay for a year’s basic secondary education for one of his children – and wrote persuasive letters to parents.

At Skipton Parish they produced art work inspired by learning about the processes involved in making a football and how Fairtrade can help the workers making them in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Even Skipton Mayor, Cllr Martin Emmerson, got involved in a Fairtrade flash mob through Skipton but unlike the Fairtrade team from Skipton Girls High School, who choreographed and organised the flash mob – along with the children and some parents from Water Street and Greatwood schools – Cllr Emmerson was unprepared. Undeterred he joined in enthusiastically and made many people smile.

A Fairtrade pop-up appeared on Skipton High Street. It attracted a lot of interest and raised awareness of Skipton’s Fairtrade Town status. Liz Roodhouse from Craven Development Education Centre and Skipton Fairtrade said: “It has been a brilliant couple of weeks.

“The need to make things right is all around us.

“Fairtrade is one way, a simple, powerful way to make a difference to the people who grow and make the things we love.”