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Barrie Becomes a Fair Trade City

Barrie City hall On Monday May 10th, 2010, with the approval of City Council, the City of Barrie joined over 600 cities worldwide by qualifying as a Fair Trade City.

Achieving Fair Trade City status sends a message to Canadians and the rest of the world that Barrie is committed to supporting the Fair Trade program that has produced measureable improvements in the quality of life of millions of individuals in the developing world.

This qualification makes Barrie the largest Fair Trade City in Ontario, and a true leader in the Canadian Fair Trade movement.

The BFTWG has worked with Barrie City Council, City staff and a diverse group of community organizations for over two years to achieve this qualification. We are very grateful for the support that the City of Barrie has provided.

For more details see Fair Trade Town.

Barrie Fair Trade Working Group received the YMCA 2009 Peace Medallion Award

The BFTWG was very fortunate to receive the YMCA 2009 Peace Medallion Award this past November. The award was given in recognition of the work done by the BFTWG to promote an awareness of Fair Trade in the Barrie area.

Barrie Fair Trade received the YMCA 2009 Peace Medallion Award The award was presented Tuesday Nov. 24th, at the Barrie YMCA by General Manager Michael O'Callaghan and assisted by Cat O'Conner and Stephanie Carstairs.

Barrie Fair Trade Suppliers

Cafes:
13 — Serve more than one Fair Trade product.

Retailers:
28 — Offer more than one Fair Trade product.

Download PDF for details.

What's New in 2010

In December 2009, Nestle announced that effective Jan 2010 their Kit Kat Chocolate bar will be Fair Trade. Over 1 billion Kit Kat bars are sold annually in the UK and the chocolate will be supplied by cocoa from Ivory Coast, a region of extreme poverty, described in Carol Off’s book "Bitter Chocolate". This announcement was made only six months after Cadbury announced that the Dairy Milk Bar would be Fair Trade in the UK in 2009 and in North America in 2010.
Green and Black's, the UK organic chocolate supplier, announced in January, that all of its chocolate will be Fair Trade by 2011.
Zehrs in Barrie has recently added Fair Trade grapes to it’s offering of fresh produce that already includes Fair Trade bananas and Fair Trade oranges.
Barrie's Metro Store on Bayfield has a good selection of Fair Trade products. coffee, hot chocolate, chocolate and tea.
Two new cafes in Barrie are promoting Fair Trade products; Cafe del Sol on Maple St. and Candyland Express on Bayfield St.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, Oct. 2nd, Coffee Day at the Innisfil Public Library, Cookstown Branch. Contact Susan Baues 705-458-1273 At 1 pm, Bruce Morton of the BFTWG will talk about Fair Trade coffee and the Fair Trade Town program.
Sunday, Nov. 7th, 3:30 pm Huronia Symphony Concert at Fischer Auditorium. Fair Trade coffee courtesy of Hamley's Tea & Coffee Co.

If you would like to participate, please contact us

Bob Jowett: 705-792-4430, email: cr_jowett@ rogers.com
Bruce Morton: 705-722-0141, email: bmorton@icpcanada.com