Sheffield's only fair trade shop has raised over £30,000 in five years

Good Taste-The Sheffield Fair Trade Shop is celebrating its fifth birthday. L-R Lucy Morley, Jenny Coleman and student volunteer Jasmine French. Picture Scott Merrylees

This week, they mark the five-year anniversary of the shop and also celebrate raising £30,000 to support the work of TASTE, a Sheffield-based charity which provides clean water and sanitation to rural areas in Nigeria.

Jenny said: “I am so proud of what we have achieved over the last five years with the help of so many willing staff and volunteers, and support from our very loyal customer base.

“It is wonderful that we have made a profit each year, amounting to more than £30,000 over the five years. This equates to life changing, clean, safe water for about 5,400 adults and children in rural Nigeria.”

The shop, on Whitham Road, Broomhill, has also helped lots of people in the area in the last five decades.

Jenny said: “We change lives with the sale of every Fair Trade item we sell. It is impossible to quantify the number of families who are now self-supporting and can feed, clothe and educate their children because the products they grow or make are sold by us at a fair price.”

Good Taste is a “not for profit” business which sells a range of hand-made gifts, jewellery, cards and toys from more than thirty countries across the world, as well as fairly traded food including tea, coffee and chocolate.

To mark their milestone birthday, Jenny and Rob, along with their daughter Lucy, are holding a party for all of their staff, volunteers and customers in store on Tuesday, March 3.

They will also present a cheque that represents the profits made in their fifth year of trading to Ben Udejiofo, chief executive of Taste, to support provision of a clean water supply and sanitation to another community within Nigeria.

Jenny said: “We would love to see more customers coming to our shop as we become increasingly well known.

“We now have a small community cafe area in the shop, where people can drop in for a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of cake, and find a friendly welcome from us.

“High street shopping has been suffering a downturn over recent years, but at Good Taste we have seen our sales maintained, for which we are truly thankful.”