Profile: Aberdeen Shared Planet Society's Fairtrade Café
Many P&P groups organise Fairtrade Cafés to promote trade justice on campus. This Fairtrade Fortnight, P&P profiles Aberdeen Shared Planet Society's long-running Fairtrade and Organic Café. Six years of popularity is impressive, so we questioned Martha and Caroline from the Aberdeen group about the secret of their success.
The Fairtrade Cafe
Mikko
Fairtrade goodies on sale.
Mikko
What is the Fairtrade Café that Aberdeen Shared Planet Society runs? How is it organised? The café is a place where students, staff, or anyone else can go for a healthy, ethical lunch, and pick up a £5 bag of local organic veg. It’s open from 12-2 every Wednesday during term. It’s organised very loosely, with a few core people who make sure the supplies are bought the day before, stay behind to tidy up at the end, etc., and a revolving group of volunteers which changes every week.
How popular is the cafe? How does the rest of the University community perceive it? It’s been incredibly popular, with a few hundred people stopping by during an afternoon. I would like to think that the rest of the uni sees it as a positive thing, but I can imagine that there are people who stay away because they see it as a ‘hippie’ or a christian thing (the cafe is based at the chaplaincy centre).
What do you see is the purpose of the cafe? We do it so students have somewhere to go to get a cheap meal without TV screens blaring out pop music at them. It’s also really important to spread awareness of fairtrade and environmental issues, so you can reach people who might not otherwise think of these things, and to make this stuff part of the mainstream.
How long has the cafe been running? Why do you think it’s been such a success? It’s been running successfully for over 6 years now because it’s cheap as chips, really. We just recently introduced voluntary prices, so people can decide themselves how much they want to pay. And people generally pay more than what we used to charge!
What are you most proud of that the cafe has achieved? Helping to make fairtrade a ‘normal’ thing.
For more information about Fairtrade campaigning, see P&P’s Fairtrade campaign website.
Enjoying soup and the Aberdeen sunshine!
Mikko
An organic veg bag prepared by students at the cafe
Mikko
The famous toasties
Mikko
Mmmm soup.
Mikko
Early in the morning - preparing the veg bags
Mikko
Local organic eggs for sale at the cafe
Mikko
Organic veg bags
Mikko