This holiday season, the student body of Pierre-Savard, a high school in Ottawa, treated its students to hot chocolate. This activity kicked off the 10 days of Christmas events leading up to the Christmas break. Keeping in the spirit of eco-friendly activities, students brought their reusable mugs to be served Camino hot chocolate and learn more about Fair Trade.
The student body, led by student Emanuel Lukawiecki, also hung posters and marketing materials for Fair Trade all around the school to raise awareness. In the spirit of commitment to ethical consumption, Emanuel brought other Fair Trade products from his house, such as coffee, tea, chocolate bars, lip balm, socks, and chocolate chips for a fun activity that had students guess how many items were in the jar for a chance to win a Camino mint dark chocolate bar.
Here’s how the day went according to Emanuel: “Right before the start of school, we finally had a system that was functional but pretty hectic. We had one team heating up the water as fast as they could, then running it over to another team mixing the powder and water together with a drill in a big tub that would get constantly filled with water. Then another team would grab the big tubs and bring them over to the final team, the team that was serving. Finally, at 8:05AM, the students started lining up in the atrium to get their hot chocolate before class started. We managed to serve roughly 200 students and informed them about Fair Trade. I look forward to taking everything I have learned to run many more activities like this in the future.”
Students are changemakers and important contributors to the Fair Trade movement. Across Canada, secondary and high school students, as well as college and university students spend many hours on spreading the word about Fair Trade, getting their school administration to work toward designation or to source more Fair Trade products. Collaboration between students, staff, teachers and administrators is key to a successful designation process. We look forward to supporting Pierre-Savard in their work to become a Fair Trade School, and to welcoming some of the students at our Fair Trade Conference in Ottawa.
To learn more about the Fair Trade Ottawa town group and how to get involved, check out their website.