Fair Trade Cook Book
Curriculum Links: Design & Technology 1.1 (a), 1.1 (c), 1.2 (a), 1.2 (b), 1.4 (b); Art& Design 2.1 (a); Citizenship 1.1 (b), 1.3 (c), 2.1 (a), 2.1 (b), 2.3 (a), 2.3 (b); Geography 1.2 (a), 1.3 (a), 1.4 (a); ICT 1.1 (a), 1.1 (c); PSHE 1.2 (a), 1.2 (b),1.2 (d), 1.4 (b), 2.1 (c),2.3 (a), 2.3 (e), 2.3 (f).
Learning Objective: To explore Fairtrade ingredients, develop Fairtrade menus and produce a Fairtrade cookbook.
Learning Outcome: Students generate, develop, model and communicate ideas using ICT.
Resources Needed: Access to internet, a range of cookbooks, ingredients for cooking students Fairtrade menus, producer stories.
Starter: Go to www.fairtrade.org.uk and make a list of Fairtrade products and then add examples of non-Fairtrade items. As you call them out students have to move over to one left of the room if they believe that they’re Fairtrade and the right hand side if they think they’re not. If they get one wrong they are out of the game!
Main Activity: Stage 1: Research
Explain that the class is going to develop a Fairtrade cookbook by creating different Fairtrade recipes, testing them and then putting them together in a cookbook which they will design.
Distribute producer stories from different countries to students throughout the class and discuss with them the concept of 'Fairtrade'. How does it work? What is the supply chain? How does it benefit producers in developing countries? Elicit ideas of 'typical' meals and write down a list of the ingredients. How many of these do students buy from Fairtrade sources? How many do students think are available? Go to www.fairtrade.org.uk and have a look at what’s available. There are over 3,000 different Fairtrade products. Are students surprised?
• Decide on a target audience for the cookbook and undertake research on the types of food the audience likes.
• Look through other cookbooks, what do the students like/dislike about them?
• Decide how much money students have available to spend on their menu
Stage 2: Development
Splitting the students into groups ask them to come up with ideas for a menu (starter, mains, dessert) using at least three of the six Fairtrade commodities: raisins, rice, sugar, honey, blueberries and quinoa.
Decide on the success criteria with the class. For example:
• Include 3 out of the 6 specified Fairtrade commodities.
• As many as possible of the remaining ingredients used in the menu must be Fairtrade
• It must be healthy and include 5 different fruits/vegetables
• The 3 different dishes must complement each other
• The menus should be easy to replicate
• Students must spend a maximum of £10 on ingredients
• Menus must take into consideration other ethical or environmental issues in the UK or abroad.
(You may wish to include priorities relevant to your own school/ schemes of learning)
In groups students produce a menu, explaining their reasons for choosing each dish and the ways in which it takes into consideration the success criteria.
Stage 3: Testing
Students cook their dishes. Students then use the success criteria to judge each group’s menu out of 10 on each requirement. This stage could be organised as a 'Come Dine with Me'/'Master Chef' scenario.
Students write an explanation of how they cooked their dishes and then evaluate their menus, making revisions where necessary.
Stage 4: Design
As a class, students decide on the design elements of the cookbook
• What will it be called?
• Why/how will it appeal to the target audience?
• What will the cookbook look like? Will there be a colour scheme? How will they make it clear that it is a Fairtrade cookbook?
• Think about ethical/environmental considerations in relation to the product e.g. will the paper be recycled? Will it be available online only?
• How will it be laid out?
• Will it include information about each Fairtrade commodity and the difference Fairtrade makes to producers?
Students are allocated different tasks to undertake to complete the class cookbook.
Plenary: Using a roll of blank wallpaper turn one wall of the class into a graffiti wall. Students then write down what they have learnt, how they feel about Fairtrade and what they would like to know more about in the future.
Click here to download the Producer Stories in Welsh.