Thursday, 28 February 2008

Divine Chocolate tour Exeter

Paul and Kojo outside Exeter Cathedral

Paul with Exeter school children

Paul and Kojo proudly holding up a fabric painting from the school children

Kojo and Paul fuelled up for the day on a hearty fry-up (with extra mushrooms and bacon) before we all headed off on the bus to our first destination – ‘The West of England School and College for Children with Little or No Sight’ in Exeter.

Three different groups of students enjoyed a day of learning, cooking and painting. Kojo and Paul took us through the ‘bean to bar’ story, and introduced students to cocoa pods, fermenting and dried cocoa beans. Touch, smell and taste all helped to familiarise unsuspecting participants to the surprising origins of their Divine and Dubble Fairtrade chocolate.

It was a great morning and we were rewarded with delicious chocolate dipped bananas and pineapples (all Fairtrade of course!) At the end of the workshops Kojo and Paul were presented with a wonderful ‘bean to bar’ fabric painting that the students had worked on during the day. The scene depicted each stage of the bean to bar story and included seeds and beads to give the pods a great textured finish. We thanked all the students and organisers with Dubble bars and ‘Stock the Choc’ postcards before leaving for the next destination - Exeter FM radio station!

Following Kojo and Paul’s interview we were taken (via a delicious Fairtrade CafĂ©!) to Exeter’s Global Centre, where we got the opportunity to meet Martin Odoch, Field Manager for the Mpanga Growers Tea Factory in Uganda. Kojo, Paul and Martin talked to Plymouth University students about Fairtrade and how its benefits are experienced by cocoa and tea farmers. Following the talks, the celebrations begun for the evening and we were treated to farmer presentations, songs, role plays and, of course, some delicious Fairtrade food and wine! (Devon Fairtrade campaign)