Gavin’s Mill Community Project was founded by people who are passionate about Fair Trade. It is at the heart of our organisation and influences our activities – our shop sells fair trade goods and our café serves fair trade teas, coffees and hot chocolate as well as using some fair trade ingredients in cakes and lunches.

Gavin’s Mill is a Friend of BAFTS – the British Association of Fair Trade Shops. We don’t quite meet the criteria to be a full member of BAFTS, but you’ll find a huge variety of fair trade items in the shop!

We are happy to supply fair trade stalls for schools, churches, and other organisations – please email us on fstalls@gavinsmill.org for more details – and we can also supply speakers on fair trade topics.

We also hold events where you can meet fair trade producers. These events are usually held at Gavin’s Mill, sometimes with producers visiting the Mill and sometimes with video links to producers in their home countries.

Fair Trade in the Shop at Gavin’s Mill

We source stock for our shop from a wide range of certified fair trade suppliers, including foods from True Origin Foods and crafts from Namaste and Shared Earth. Visit their websites for more information:

• True Origin Foods
• Namaste
• Shared Earth
• Some very small organisations provide fair trade or fairly traded jewellery and textiles.

For more information about fair trade certification, see this article.

“Fairly Traded” Goods

Fairly traded goods are produced in accordance with fair trade principles, but the producer or organisation does not have fair trade certification. Often that is because the cost of obtaining fair trade certification can be more than the organisation can afford, but it may also be that they are working towards certification but haven’t yet achieved it.

Rainforest Alliance

Products certified as Rainforest Alliance “contain one or more key ingredients produced with social, economic, and environmental sustainability”. The emphasis is on forests and environmental sustainability. It does not include several of the 10 Principles of Fair Trade, in particular it does not guarantee a fairly negotiated minimum price for goods.

B Corp Certified

These are organisations and businesses that meet the highest stands of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. This can be from charitable giving, supply chain buying, procedures and treatment of employees, a holistic approach. Some such companies are The Body Shop, Patagonia.