Mothering Sunday Gifts

Flowers? Chocolates? Cards? You can Fair Trade them all.

If you’re going for a traditional Mothering Sunday gift, it’s easy to send Fairtrade foods and flowers or Fair Trade cards. And when you do, you not only give pleasure to the person you’re treating, but you give a higher income to the people producing the gift.

All links take you directly to the products mentioned.

• Fairtrade Flowers
  • Arena Flowers and Marks and Spencer will send Fairtrade roses by mail.
• Fairtrade Chocolates
  • Start with your local Fairtrade shop if you have one.  RISC World Shop in Reading and  Just Trading in Wallingford both have large selection of Divine and other chocolates. If you’re in Oxford, you can try Fair Trade at St Michael’s and Headington Fair Trade. If you’re in Faringdon area, look at the Mustard Seed
  • Oxfam shops often also have a good selection of Fairtrade chocolates – and if there’s not a shop near you, try their online emporium.
  • If none of those is an option, consider your local supermarket or shop –  Coop, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose have large selections; Marks and Spencer has several own-brand chocolates on offer, including a letterbox gift box you can order online; Lidl uses Fairtrade cocoa in a wide range of products; smaller shops may carry some specialist Fairtrade brands.
  • Or order online. You can go to a major retailer like Traidcraft, Ethical Superstore, Abel and Cole, or Real Foods. Traidcraft and Ethical Superstore sell hampers, as well as individual gifts.
    Some of the major Fairtrade chocolate producers also have gifts that you can order online: take a look at the Cocoa Loco gift boxes, the design-your-own-wrapper feature offered by Tony’s Chocolonely, and Meaningful Chocolate‘s range of Mothering Sunday cards, bars, and boxes.
• Fair Trade Cards
  • Your local Fair Trade shop will have a selection of cards; Fair Trade at St Michael’s will also send cards out by post.
  • A wide range of Fair Trade cards is available online – look at Cards from Africa, Just Cards, Oxfam, Shared Earth, and Traidcraft. And, as noted above, Meaningful Chocolate Company is doing cards with chocolate.
• Other Fair Trade gifts
  • Scarves? Jewellery? Stationery? You can find a range of Fair Trade gifts in the local and online Fair Trade shops. Check out, also, some lovely jewellery carried by Embrace the Middle East.

Make a Fairtrade meal

• A little something scrumptious can be a lovely way to say thank you. Check out the Fairtrade Foundation’s wonderful collection of recipes. Which might you make?

Support mothers and daughters trading worldwide

• To honour someone special in your life, why not give a gift which will help a woman get more opportunities for herself and her family.
  • Traidcraft Exchange’s charity gifts include options that will let you donate to help Marvellous Mothers, Women Working Together, and Women Being Their Own Boss. And for every gift you purchase between 8 March and 7 June, the UK Government will give matching funds.
  • The Mothers’ Union’s Make a Mother’s Day appeal also offers you the chance to choose gifts that will help empower women economically.