Meet Foncho. He’s a man on a mission. He knows first-hand that cheap bananas threaten farmers’ futures.
Over the past 10 years, the typical price of a banana in the UK has nearly halved, whilst the cost of production has doubled. Foncho thinks this is unfair. And so does the NFWI.
He traveled from his banana farm in Colombia to the UK for Fairtrade Fortnight, to ask Vince Cable to investigate unfair supermarket pricing practices and act to protect the producers of the UK’s favourite fruit.
Click here to sign the petition to make bananas fair. The petition is put forward by the Fairtrade Foundation and is backed by the NFWI.
You can also use the Fairtrade website to find out which local supermarkets stock fairtrade products. Remember, every time you buy a fairtrade banana, it’s a signal to the supermarkets that we value our food, we value the people who grow it and we expect supermarkets to value them too.
Avril Woolcock (WI Advisor and member of Gwinnear WI) with the CFWI table at Sainsbury’s.
If you paid a visit to Sainsbury’s today, you might have seen some familiar faces!
Our County Federation set up a table at the entrance to Sainsbury’s, and some of us spent the day distributing information about the W.I. and answering questions to women who might be interested in joining.
Braving the cold, we shared our enthusiasm and hopefully recruited a few new members for various Institutes throughout the county.
Diana and Jane were spotted this morning – did anyone else stop by later in the day?
There’s an excellent piece about the W.I. in the Huffington Post today. Click here to read it.
It’s mainly about new W.I.s, particularly the ‘new wave’ institutes which have been popping up recently and how they differ from more traditional institutes.
It all got me thinking – is there a difference? And I don’t think so. While it’s lovely to have new W.I.s around and especially lovely to know that younger women are interested in joining, I don’t think what we do is really any different from what they do.
Our Crowlas & Ludgvan ladies are certainly not members of the ‘blue rinse’ brigade and neither are any of the other local W.I. members we know!
Like the new Gloucester Road W.I. in Bristol, we have a lot of activities outside of our monthly meeting. Like the Burton Belles, we use social media to keep in touch and get our message out. Like Manchester W.I., our members are an eclectic mix of ages and backgrounds. And like Buns and Roses, we’re interested in everything from crafts to resolutions.
So hats off to Crowlas & Ludgvan! A perfect balance of new and old wave!
There was quite a turnout at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance for Saturday’s International Women’s Day event.
Lis Davies talks about our banners.
Three Crowlas & Ludgvan WI members made presentations about various aspects of the WI and what it means to them: Hazel Brown, Lis Davies and Helen Kestle. There were also speakers from Madron, Carbis Bay, Sheffield, Perranuthnoe and Mount’s Bay.
Presentations included Liz Anderson (Sheffield and Mount’s Bay) discussing WI badges through the years; Hilary Catton (Madron) showing us the gorgeous embroidered tablecloth their members created; Jenny Fitton (Mount’s Bay) regaling us with her adventures in bobbin lace making; and Marjorie Pascoe (Perranuthnoe) showing her amazing knitted farm scene.
Hazel Brown shows off some of our Rag Dolls’ beautiful work
Lis Davies spoke about our old Ludgvan banner and our reasons for creating a new Crowlas & Ludgvan banner. Helen Kestle talked about the old Ludgvan WI Sunshine Committee cash book. Hazel Brown finished up the afternoon by showing off some of the beautiful rag rug work our members have done over the years.
In the audience were Gail Allen, Wendy Allen, Shirley Battle, Julie Blewett, Gill Gowland, Kathy Merrett and Charlotte Robinson, as well as lots of others from local institutes.
After the presentations, we all retired to the Exchange cafe for coffee, cake and some good conversation.
All in all, it was a great afternoon and a fantastic way to celebrate International Women’s Day in the company of a roomful of inspiring women.
In case you missed the event, banners from all of the institutes mentioned above are on display at the gallery and will be there until the 27th. If you’re in town, do pop in to see them all – they really do look spectacular!
Earlier today, a group of Crowlas & Ludgvan WI members had a lovely time making padded coat hangers with expert tuition from Jane Twose.
Sue Badcock, Mary Venn, Val Puddiphatt and Kathy Merrett all concentrating hard on their coat hangers.
Once we had been shown the techniques we chose our material and started personalising our creations. It was a lovely relaxing day. Thanks so much to Lis Davies for organising it.
The end results – a gorgeous assortment of homemade coat hangers.
(Jane also provided some excellent homemade orange and caramel cake which, appropriately, was cut with a pair of sewing scissors!)
Our own talented Hazel Brown is going to have some of her paintings on display at Morvah Schoolhouse Gallery from 6-16 March, with a preview on 9 March.
Our Book Club meets tomorrow evening to discuss Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.
If you’d like to join the group, send us an email on crowlasludgvanwi@gmail.com and we’ll make sure you have all the details of this and all upcoming meetings!
Meet Foncho. He’s a man on a mission. He knows first-hand that cheap bananas threaten farmers’ futures.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 