Cadder Church Fair Trade Shop
About the shop
Our Fair Trade Shop is situated in the South Hall opposite the library in Bishopbriggs on Kirkintilloch Road. It is open Tuesday to Friday when the Coffee Shop is open. Our shop is managed and run by volunteers. We work mainly with three fair trade companies but we do stock other goods.
We are trying hard to tempt you into the shop with our range of goods. At the moment we have heavy duty gloves for the house and extra heavy duty gloves for the garden - thorn proof, which I can vouch for as I have tried them out.
We are still selling Kilemrero rice and of course, the Divine chocolate (milk and dark) are still popular. After you have a look around, the coffee shop is very welcoming either for cake and coffee/tea or lunch. What could be better?
Regina's Story:
From my childhood I knew that poor people had only one dream; which is to be able to eat three times a day; I dreamt the same.
I got married when I was thirteen. We got to know that there is a profit in tea planting after my husband and I worked as labourers in tea gardens. I heard about Traidcraft. My husband and I decided to use our land for growing tea plants. Our soil is very good for tea planting. If we can dedicate 1 - 15 years for growing tea in the garden it will give us leaves for 80 - 100 years. I received 6 training sessions from Traidcraft. The wheel of our life then started turning.
We sell fair trade teas and coffees, sweets, biscuits, rice, jewellery, and gifts.
All the household goods are in stock - kitchen roll, toilet roll, washing up liquid, laundry liquid, hand wash, scourers, sponge scourers and rubber gloves as usual. These are items that we all use in our homes and I would encourage you to use these fairly traded items instead of your usual brands as you will then be supporting the farmers in Africa and Pakistan who grow the palm trees from which the palm oil the basis of most soap items. I have been using them and find them quite good.
We have a large variety of jewellery and gifts.
We also have introduced a selection of sweets which we are offering as a pick and mix.
We have a variety of stationery goods, key rings, fridge magnets, stickers and pencil cases.
There is a selection of toys for our younger customers.
We continue to stock tea, coffee and hot chocolate, sweets, biscuits, honey, marmalade and chocolate and hazelnut spread. Last year we managed to sent one child to school for a year by selling rice. We still have rice in the shop and are hoping to sell enough to send a second child to school.
Please come in and have a look.
The fair trade companies we work with are:
This company is the fair trade branch of Tear Fund. This is a group of Christians who are passionate about ending poverty. They help to trade fairly beautiful handcrafted, ethical gifts created by skilled craftspeople from some of the world's poorest communities. They go to where the need is greatest, working through local churches to unlock people's potential and helping them to discover that the answer to poverty is within themselves. When disasters strike, they respond quickly. "We won't stop until poverty stops"
Just Trading Scotland is one of a group of small companies which form the Balmore Trust. The Trust began in someone's garden in Balmore 33 years ago in response to the poverty they had seen in South Africa and parts of Glasgow. The money they have raised has been used to give away grants to support projects and to help people living in poverty both at home and abroad to the tune of £1million. It has also now developed into a vehicle for selling fair trade goods. Just Trading is the company which organises the Rice Challenge.
Traidcraft exists to fight poverty through trade and practising and promoting approaches to trade that help poor people in developing countries transform their lives. It was established in 1979, a Christian response to poverty, and combines a trading company and a developmental charity.
They build relationships with their producers, support people to trade out of poverty and work to bring about trade justice.