MORE than 50 people gathered at Tavistock Methodist Church on Sunday to celebrate ten years of the Fairtrade Mark, which guarantees a better deal for Third World producers.
Representatives from local churches, WestDEN and Oxfam attended the event where children played party games, adults got stuck into a quiz and a party tea was laid on, each with a fair trade theme.
A group letter was written to Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn, calling for the rules of international trade to favour the poor rather than the rich.
Christian Aid co-ordinator for Devon, Martin John Nicholls, cut the birthday cake after David Youe, who also has a tenth birthday this week, blew out the candles.
Martin rounded off the party with songs inspired by visits like his trip to a co-operative in Ghana which grows cocoa for the fairly traded ?Divine? chocolate. He shared further stories at the evening service which followed at the church.
Kit Harbottle, who organised the party, said the continuing growth of the Fairtrade movement showed everyone could make a difference through the choices they made when they shopped.
?Fairtrade Fortnight invite us to a taste for life ?food that tastes good and brings quality of life to the people who grow it,? she said.
l See Letters, page 4.