Those present

• Mike King
• Sheena King
• Tony Thornby
• Sarah Moroz
• Ivan Cicin-Sain – Wycombe Friends of the Earth

Wycombe Friends of the Earth / Population Matters / Bucks Climate Action Alliance

I C-S – re: Wycombe Friends of the Earth – he has done an update recently with Steve Norton. The group have started to be more active on food waste and are expecting a talk soon by Trevor Snaith who runs the Wycombe Food Hub. I C-S is also joining the board of this as they want someone involved with climate change. The Bucks Climate Action Alliance group and others are also lobbying councillors. The other areas in which the group are currently active are fossil fuel divestment and eco organisations. The dormant campaigns are ‘Finding Greta’, schools/junior projects and work on bees and litter picking.

Population Matters group – currently dormant

MK – Wycombe for Fairtrade has now joined the Bucks Climate Action Alliance (we are the 23rd member). MK had a Zoom call with Steve Morton.

Social media

TT – Has picked out items from the feeds he gets and puts them on an automatic schedule to go on our Facebook and Twitter pages. If anyone comes across a site that TT may not be picking up, let TT know. He has detected same pattern that MK mentioned – the articles increasingly mention environment and climate change and the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on the poorer producers.

Grecia/Coope Victoria link

JM – has discussed ideas with Maria for joint activities. One of the main ones is the relationship between schools in our 2 countries. Maria is contacting schools in Grecia, in the same way that we are. JM’s wife used to work at Wycombe High –suggests we could start with this school.

MK – JM has suggested amendments to our schools letter. We could send a trial e-mail to Wycombe High. MK has the relevant e-mail addresses for the schools and the subject heads.

I C-S – found it quite hard to get contact into Wycombe High with Wycombe FOE’s ‘Finding Greta’ project. Once they know you it’s easier.

SM – could JM’s wife talk to the Headteacher to make sure they know who we are?

JM – she could do this. She left Wycombe High a couple of years ago but she should be able to do this. Schools are very busy at the moment due to the return after lockdown. Perhaps better to leave it a few weeks.

JM – hasn’t yet heard back from Maria re: the wording of the banner that we sent. He will ask.

Journal of Fair Trade article

MK – no further progress on the article for the Journal of Fair Trade but they have accepted all the diagrams in the correct format.

Treasurer’s report

SK – no change in our bank balance since our last meeting £251.75

I C-S – could we put our account details on our website in case anyone wants to donate?

MK – good idea, we should do this.

Fairtrade Fortnight

MK – all the households in Tilehurst where his father lives received a leaflet from Kingdom Coffee showing some new varieties of coffee –this happened to tie in with FT Fortnight but was also a drive for Kingdom to increase sales to individual households.
There are several pages in the latest Lidl catalogue on FT.

SM – took part in 2 FT webinars, both very good – will send links

SK – saw a very good one on the first day of FT Fortnight, chaired by Lucy Seagull of the Guardian. The Chairlady of CLAC was one of the participants. It also included Esther Stanford who is a ‘reparationist’ and Tim Lang, an academic on food security. They discussed the situation on the ground for producers due to climate change. Also the fact that lower commodity prices are not covering the cost of living and that there have been increase in costs due to Covid.

MK – he attended 4 sessions. Suggests that we each do a write up that can be put up on our website. One of the sessions discussed boosting the supply chain network and included Cheryl Pinto, a sourcing manager for Ben & Jerry’s – they are a FT certified as well as a B-Corp company. B-Corp runs parallel to a lot of FT principles.
Many of the webinars discussed climate change.

MK – was also invited to an online FT breakfast organised by Bucks New Uni. He was sent lots of FT goodies by Jade Collis. There were 15 students and MK spoke for about 30 minutes to them about what we are doing and they asked lots of questions. After Easter the students are planning a FT coffee tasting and a FT wine and cheese event.
Churches

SK – Gained a lot of orders for FT Easter eggs from people at Christ the Servant King church and raised about £190 in orders for the Meaningful Chocolate company.

MK – re: churches mini-team. Angus is leading this. MK will check with the FT Foundation which churches they will be starting with.

Other matters

MK – MK/SK still hope to visit Costa Rica mid to end of September.

JM – the 200th anniversary is on 15th September

MK – there is also the anniversary of the formation of Coope Victoria in October. Maria Angela will arrange things accordingly once dates are known.

SK –has now signed up with Traidcraft to walk 100km to raise money.

JM – the head of FT International resigned last month.

TT – re: who our contact could be in Buckinghamshire Council – this week he came across a ‘Community Board’. There is a Community Board for High Wycombe (Lesley Clarke is deputy in this) – their work covers reducing our climate footprint etc.
Also there is a Facebook page pressure group for a Wycombe Town Council.

Next meeting

To be arranged