Mount Charles has celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight with a Big Breakfast in almost 50 of their catering units across Ireland, supporting the Fairtrade Foundation and promoting the use of ethically sourced products to their wide ranging customer base.

The company-wide event was anchored at the catering giant’s site at Ulster University’s Jordanstown campus, where Provost Professor Alastair Adair oversaw proceedings.

Cathal Geoghegan, Managing Director of Mount Charles said: “As a company we’re committed to sourcing Fairtrade produce where possible. Indeed, our University coffee shop brand Moka serves only Fairtrade tea and coffee along with a selection of Fairtrade food, such as bananas, muffins and flapjacks.

“We decided to adopt the Big Breakfast initiative from the Fairtrade Foundation across all of our catering sites. The aim is to help increase incomes for farmers and workers in developing countries who grow the delicious food we all enjoy, but who barely have enough to live on themselves. Hopefully we’ve further raised awareness of this great cause,” he added.

Paddy Ann Leach, Catering and Conference Services Manager at Ulster University said: “We are delighted that Mount Charles has lent its support to Ulster University’s Fair Trade awareness campaign. We believe passionately about farmers being acknowledged and that they get a fair deal. We are promoting the range of Fair Trade products we sell on campus to our students to raise awareness of the campaign to the students and the good they are doing by purchasing them.”

Jan Moore from Johnson’s Coffee, who supply Fairtrade coffee to Mount Charles added: “We believe it’s important to raise awareness of Fairtrade products to the students here at Ulster University, Jordanstown campus, as they are the consumers of tomorrow.

“Johnson’s have been trading for over 100 years, we are a family run company, driven by family ethics. We care about getting the best deal for our farmers, without whom we would not have the quality product we have here today.”

Fairtrade Fortnight is running from 29th February – 13th March. For details visit fortnight.fairtrade.org uk

For more information on Mount Charles visit www.mountcharles.com