IVYBRIDGE will once again be getting involved in nationwide activities around Fairtrade Fortnight this year.

Running from Monday, February 29 to Sunday, March 13, the theme for 2016 is ’Stand Up for Farmers, Sit Down for Breakfast’.

The aim is to get people thinking about where their breakfast comes from and the farmers who produce it, both at home and abroad.

Local Fairtrade Fortnight events are being organised by the town’s Fairtrade supporters group, who last year succeeded in getting Ivybridge’s Fairtrade Town status renewed.

The group writes: ‘As Martin Luther King famously said, ’before you finish eating breakfast in the morning you’ve depended on half the world’. Just think of all the products we consume at the start of the day: coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit juice, bananas, sugar, muesli from overseas and milk, butter, bread, honey, marmalade, bacon and eggs from local producers.

‘But despite our dependence on farmers and workers for these foods, drinks and products we love, they are often not paid a fair price for them and millions of farmers worldwide are struggling to make a living.’

A programme of breakfast-themed events is running throughout the fortnight, kicking off on Wednesday, March 2 with a Fairtrade and local meal from 9.30am at the Watermark, when a cooked breakfast with local bacon and eggs and Fairtrade drinks and sugar will be on offer.

Saturday, March 5 will see the return of the smoothie bike to the Watermark between 10am and noon, where anyone who wants to can use pedal power to crush a range of Fairtrade fruits. In Glanvilles Mill, local bacon baps will be on sale and Fairtrade tea and coffee tasting will take place at the same time.

Sunday, March 13 is the day of a Fairtrade brunch at St John’s Church, Blachford Road, from 11.30am

These events are open to everyone. For more Fairtrade activities throughout the fortnight, look out for posters around the town.