Mini Vinnies

Mini Vinnies have been working very hard this week to prepare a presentation to educate our school on the issue of child labour and slavery in the chocolate industry. It will be presented at morning assembly on Thursday 11 April before the Ethical Easter Egg Raffle is drawn.

Ethical Easter Egg Raffle

Thank you very much for your donations of Ethical Easter Eggs for the raffle (this was requested of the Mini Vinnies Team in a note sent home last Friday). Ethical Easter Eggs can be donated to the School Office until Tuesday 9 April (Week 10).

 few people have commented they have found it hard to find Ethical Easter Eggs. The best store for variety of choice and quantity (and the quality is very good too) is Aldi by a country mile. Also, Haigh’s Easter Egg range (more pricey, but definitely delicious) are UTZ Certified. So three cheers for Aldi and Haigh’s!!!

Sadly, it does seem harder to find Ethical Easter Eggs in most Big W, Coles, Kmart, Target and Woolworths stores where Cadbury and Lindt dominate the shelves by far. What a shame Cadbury’s range of Easter Eggs does not even come under their own Cocoa Life program. However, these stores do have some ethical choices. Some examples are:

- Chocolatier has a range of milk and dark chocolate eggs in Woolworths, Myer and Big W.

- Coles own brand is UTZ Certified.

- Ferrero mini eggs and squirrel are Fairtrade.

- NRL Football Egg is UTZ Certified.

- Woolworths own brand is UTZ Certified.

Unfortunately  L, Oxfam is no longer trading in Canberra. For your information, Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and Rainforest Alliance are the three primary certification bodies in Australia. They continue to be the most credible assurance against unsustainable, exploitative practices and forced labour. Programs such as Cadbury’s Cocoa Life, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program and Nestle’s Cocoa Plan are self-regulated programs. The effectiveness of these self-regulated programs is yet to be determined.

Hopefully, more people become aware of this global social justice issue and decide to buy only slavery-free chocolate. Then companies and stores will get the message that ethical considerations are highly important to consumers.

Raffle Tickets will be sold before and after school on the playground in Week 10 (1 ticket for 50 cents or 3 tickets for a dollar) and the raffle will be drawn on Thursday, 11 April.

Our fundraising will go towards the Kitenden Preschool Project, to support a Maasai community in Tanzania, eastern Africa that has been struggling due to drought and modernisation which our school has sponsored for the past five years. For more information on the Kitenden Preschool Project see https://www.futurewarriorsproject.org/what-we-do/education-and-early-childhood-development/20-kitenden-village-preschool .

Holiday Happenings

‘Holiday Happenings’ is an excellent resource if you are looking for activities for children in the school holidays. It can be accessed online: http://holidayhappenings.com.au/ . Hope everyone has wonderful school holidays when they come around.

Feel welcome to visit or contact me on 6249 8869 or send an email to sonja.mingay@cg.catholic.edu.au .

Sonja Mingay
School Chaplain

Work hours: Thu 11am-3pm, Fri 9am-3pm