The Kirchenmäuse daycare center in Sprendlingen is the first fair trade daycare center in the Offenbach district. The one-group, church facility with 25 children in Poststraße has met all the criteria for a “fair day-care center”. Children, parents and educators celebrate this special day with the presentation of the official plaque, an African coffee ceremony and an exhibition in the church.
Dreieich – “The requirements are not too high, we worked through them point by point and it was a joint project that was particularly well received by the children,” reports Karolina Slusarczyk, head of the Kirchenmäuse daycare center. In addition to the decision to become a fair day-care center and the establishment of a project team made up of parents and educators, two fairly traded products must move into the facility. “For us, that was fair trade coffee for the teachers and fair trade bananas for the children,” explains the facility manager. In the meantime, even the youngest know the fair trade seal and proudly show each other the fruit with the small stickers at breakfast in the morning. The day care center works together with the Weltladen in Darmstadt.
“For us, dealing with fair trade automatically ensured that we all dealt more with the topic of sustainability,” emphasizes Slusarczyk. The fourth criterion, the corresponding educational work, was easy to fulfill: In the past kindergarten year, teachers and children worked on the subject of cocoa, chocolate and Africa. With books from the library, they learned a lot about growing cocoa and making chocolate. “The highlight was when we made our own chocolate with the children,” says the daycare manager. The second big topic: “How cotton is made into a T-shirt”. The children tried their hand at wool, spun a wool thread, weaved on the loom, sewed and were allowed to dye a white fair trade T-shirt at the end. “A guest told us how she helped harvest cotton in Turkey as a child,” adds Karolina Slusarczyk.
Katrin Conzelmann-Stingl from the Rhein.Main.Fair association, who presented the plaque in Sprendlingen, is delighted with the first fair kindergarten in the Offenbach district: “The project has been around for ten years, and 30 daycare centers in Hesse now bear the title.” The challenges are not too high, even the slightly higher costs for fair trade products remain manageable for the facilities. “Most of the time, intensive work on fair trade and sustainability also leads to targeted consumption.”
For Sibylle Möller, fair trade officer for the district of Offenbach, who has also been an official fair trade district since 2020, the first fair day care center in the district is a success. She is hoping for a few imitators in the region: “We offer information seminars for the facilities, where the daycare staff are explained the requirements for the title,” Möller assures support for interested kindergartens in the district. (Nicole Jost)
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