BEING on the school’s Fairtrade committee might not sound such a big deal, but when you know 16 year old Joe Booth is a pupil representative at Sarum Academy in Westwood Road, Salisbury, which has around 800 pupils on its roll, then you realise his responsibility.

But Joe, who lives in Salisbury, takes it all in his stride, and his obvious passion for the Fairtrade campaign is obvious.

“I love spreading the word about Fairtrade and sharing my enthusiasm with the other pupils,” says Joe who has met me to talk about this year’s campaign, Show Off Your Label! The campaign is all about showing off the Fairtrade label to encourage more people to swap their products for those with the Fairtrade Mark.

“It’s all about getting message across into the wider community,” explains Joe. “People can then start to see that they can get involved very easily. I hold meetings with pupils in the younger years to explain to them all about what Fairtrade means and how much it does help the farmers. My goal with the meetings is to get them directly involved.”

Debbie Rock from Sarum Academy tells me that the school is working towards Fairtrade School status, which would make it the first school in the area to have that mark.

“The school has to have Fairtrade on curriculum areas, and the committee has to focus at least 50 per cent of its energies to raising awareness of the campaign,” she says.

“To this end we get our feeder primary schools involved too. Fairtrade products are used in the canteen and one of the things we are doing during Fairtrade Fortnight is to have our own café where we will be giving away samples as well as selling Becutyzulu Jewellery from Nqabakazulu comprehensive high school in South Africa.”

The Fairtrade committee were delighted when Starbucks in Salisbury agreed for its upstairs to be used for Sarum Academy’s café, which was a huge success last year and Joe has ordered some Fairtrade cotton for bunting to help get the message across.

* Fairtrade Fortnight runs from February 28 until March 13 and Sarum Academy will be hosting its café upstairs in Starbucks (by the Poultry Cross) on Tuesday March 1, Saturday, March 5 and Tuesday, March 8. There are other events taking place in the city and these can be found in Journal listings for the appropriate week.