Banana Bridge Walking

30 August 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

Aucklanders who braved the weather to walk over the Newmarket Connection on SH1 over the weekend were treated to a Fairtrade banana boost to help them across the 1.5km viaduct. The All Good Banana crew and Graeme the Fairtrade Gorilla were handing out bananas to happy punters. Graeme was one of the first to cross the bridge with his big yellow wheelbarrow full of All Good Bananas.

Lots of people bounced along full of Fairtrade goodness. Over 2,500 people crossed the bridge in the first hour! Our banana skin bins picked up the scraps and we’ll be finding a nice composter home for them. Great show Auckland!

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers Adam, Emma, Deirdre, Holly & Sophia – we couldn’t have done it without you!!

Check out some more pictures.

You can find out more about the Newmarket Connection at www.facebook.com/switchmyroute . Remember this weekend from 5pm of Saturday 4th Sep and all day Sunday 5th Sep SH1 at the Newmarket Viaduct and in parts of the city will be closed for up to 36 hours, to get ready for making the next part of the bridge.

We recommend you stay home and bake a banana cake, put your feet up and drink Fairtrade banana smoothies all day! One day of a closed motorway = a brand spanking new bigger and better bridge – we think that’s a fair trade!

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Join us for a Banana Bridge Walk!

26 August 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We wanted to be part of a little slice of NZ history so this weekend we’ll be amongst the first to set foot on the new Newmarket Viaduct! The view will be amazing and we figure it will be a little bit like when the harbour bridge opened 50 years ago. There’s nothing like an iconic bridge walk to get you going! It’s a 1.5k walk so we’re going to be there handing our Fairtrade bananas to peeps. We’re love you to come down and say hi, check out the view of Rangitoto and munch on a banana (just don’t throw your skins over the side – we’ll have our special banana skin bins for that). See you there from 9-12am Sunday 29 August. You’ll be able to spot the All Good banana crew in our yellow bananas Ts!

You can find out more about the Newmarket Connection at www.facebook.com/switchmyroute . Remember this weekend on Sunday the bridge will be open for all and banana ready! But next weekend from 5pm of Saturday 4th and all day Sunday 5th SH1 at the Newmarket Viaduct and in parts of the city will be closed for up to 36 hours, to get ready for making the next part of the bridge.

We recommend you stay home and bake a banana cake, put your feet up and drink Fairtrade banana smoothies all day! One day of a closed motorway = a brand spanking new bigger and better bridge – we think that’s a fair trade!

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Fairtrade bananas smoothies All Round!

17 August 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We were delighted to be part of Wellington on a Plate festivities on the weekend at the Hill St Junior Food Detectives event for budding foodies. Sixty kids (ages 4-8 years) got up close and personal with Hill St Farmers’ Market and Urban Harvest producers to discover how they grow, harvest, make or catch their food. In small groups the children meet the producers, heard all about their produce and participated in hands-on related activities.

All Good teamed up with Biofarm to make delicious All Good Bananas smoothies with the kids. We also had our special guest Graeme the Gorilla there with the wonderful Rose, to talk about Fairtrade bananas. The kids also got to decorate cupcakes, fillet real fish and hand line for chocolate ones and plant garlic.

Thanks to Urban Harvest and the Hill Street Farmers Market for organising such a great event. They’re already looking at planning another one it was such a hit with the kids.

Check out a slide show from the day from Urban Harvest.

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All Good on board for 7in7 2010

06 August 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We love inspiring Kiwis. And we couldn’t help but be blown away by the inspirational efforts of ultra-fit adventure junkie Malcolm Law, the founder of the 7in7 Challenge. On a solitary hike one weekend, Malcolm had brainwave to run 7 of the country’s great walks in just 7 days – a total distance of 360 kms. He managed to convince his wife it was a good idea and with a group of support runners ran the inaugural 7in7 last year, making history in the process. His adventure honoured the memory of his brother Alan, who died as a teenager from leukaemia. Malcolm and his support runners raised more than $85,000 for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation to help make a huge difference to people suffering from this cruel illness.

This year he’s back with seven more iconic trails, seven more gruelling days, the same great cause. This time around Malcolm has set a target of raising $150,000 for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation.

We wanted to get right behind this great cause too and we’re really proud to be the latest supporters of the 7in7 Challenge. Bananas are brilliant energy food for athletes, they’re a great source of vitamin C, fibre, vitamin B6 and potassium. We’ll be providing All Good Fairtrade Bananas for the all the athletes taking part in this year’s 7in7 Challenge and we’ll also be helping Malcolm with his training with a weekly dose of ‘nanas. We reckon they’ll pretty much fly through the Southern Lakes tracks with Fairtrade bananas on their side.

The great thing is that anyone can join the 7in7 Challenge. You can do one of the courses or all of them, challenge yourself and raise money for this fantastic cause in the process. Find out more… If you can’t run that far but want to support this fab cause you can make a donation.

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Yes it’s ‘Just Bananas’!

02 August 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, Banana lovers

We spent the last four days with over 40,000 food lovers at the Auckland Food Show. It was a fantastic event and we met heaps of people who were passionate about Fairtrade. Lots of people promised to rush home and swap to Fairtrade bananas next time they did their shopping!

Our show-stopper party trick was our yummy banana icecream. Frozen bananas chucked in the champion juicer and blended up into delicious bananaices… our catch phrase of the show ‘yes, it’s just bananas’! But obviously can only be made with Fairtrade bananas. People couldn’t believe that something so yum could be so healthy too.

We also had some delicious Giapo Fairtrade organic banana sorbet for people to taste test during the show as a special treat. Everyone loved it!

Thanks to everyone that came and visited us on our stand and to FTANZ and Kokako Organic for being such cool roomies. Sam’s coffees and the Kokako chocolate brownie got us through the day as did the amazing creations from Rosa and the team at the Nosh stand across from us.

Check out all the photos on our Facebook page.

James, aka banana man, juggles bananas. He's so quick you can't see them.

Chris as Banana Man

The Champion Juicer in action.

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Don’t miss us at The Food Show – 29 July 1 August

23 July 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We’re gearing up for another fabulous Food Show, this time in Auckland, next week from Thursday 29 July to Sunday 1 August. We thought it would be a great idea to team up with our friends at Kokako & the Fairtrade Association at stand 441 – to bring you a veritable feast of Fairtrade flavours. We’ll be sampling our delicious Fairtrade banana ice and also be doing some special taste tests of the Giapo Organic Fairtrade Banana Sorbet.

You can also try delicious Kokako Organic Fairtrade banana bread and gluten free brownie. Sam from Kokako is warming up the coffee machine for some Kokako Fairtrade Organic coffee too and there will be lots of other Kokako goodies to buy and show specials. Please come and say hi and find out about the difference fair trade is making to producers in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay & the world over.

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Sharing the love

16 July 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, Banana lovers, Growers

Yesterday Oxfam sent an email asking their supporters to help save the Fairtrade banana. A few people have asked if Fairtrade banana’s are in danger of disappearing from NZ stores. The answer is no – not if we can demonstrate that enough kiwi shops and consumers want them.

We’re getting great support from everyone buying All Good Fairtrade bananas and all the stores that stock and promote them and we’re incredibly grateful for that. We want to celebrate this.

But we do need to sell more to show the stores that don’t stock them it’s worthwhile for everyone to get behind Fairtrade. And, although we are getting great support we still aren’t quite selling all the bananas we get from our growers in El Guabo each week. The catch is that we reckon if we were in a few more stores we would.

So, if you want to help the best way is to accentuate the positive. Tell those stores that do sell All Good Fairtrade bananas how much you appreciate being able to buy from them and tell those that don’t stock them how much you’d appreciate them if they did.

Here are a few of the stores that are backing Fairtrade bananas and the people who grow them. If you want to find out where you can buy All Good bananas click here.

Dad, Abel Ugarte, Mom, Elizabeth Urdiales sons Abel Alberto and Axel Andres and baby Eimy Elizabeth all live on the family farm in El Guabo where Abel and Elizabeth grow the bananas you can buy from Commonsense Organics in Wellington.

We took this photo to show how much they appreciate the support of stores like Commonsense and the people who buy our bananas from them.

Angel Iniguez and his daughter Daniella.

This is Angel’s family farm in Tenguel, El Guabo. You’ll find his bananas in the New World stores that have got behind Fairtrade. A big thankyou to New World from Angel and Daniella.

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Banana Lattes @ Huffer

02 July 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We started this morning with banana lattes with the peeps @ Huffer and friends for their flat white Friday… banana stylz. Delicious gravity coffee made by master barista Glen, yummy Kokako Organic Fairtrade banana bread and lots of All Good BANANAS!

The team got creative with ‘nanas…Aaron, Aimee and Ella (Huffers design team extraordinaire)

Check out some more pics.

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Banana lovers and nudity

25 June 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, Banana lovers, General

Fabulous to see all the banana lovers at Acumen this morning who’ve brightened a rainy Auckland morning testing our Fairtrade bananas. The verdict; yummmmy. That’s the taste of justice. Thanks Gemma and Carrie and all the crew.

From next Monday All Good Bananas will be going nude all over the country. Our friends in Wellington have already been able to buy our bananas without plastic bags and now everyone else can enjoy the new (almost) nude packaging. Each bunch has a tape holding them snuggly together – just like the picture.

Have a great weekend and keep an eye for All Good Fairtrade Bananas at your local store.

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All Good joins Wellington’s Urban Harvest producer family

23 June 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We’re so excited that Wellington’s Urban Harvest, online food market, has jumped on board and is our latest stockist!

We feel very privileged to be part of the Urban Harvest producer family. Most of the produce is sourced locally from lower North Island and top of the South Island, from Hawke’s Bay and Taupo to Horowhenua, Wairarapa, Wellington and Blenheim.

Bananas are one exception not being grown on a commercial scale in NZ. However, Urban Harvest thought we fitted into their ethos of sourcing the ‘best quality food, from producers you trust’. So from next week, if you’re in Wellies, you can order All Good’s from the comfort of your couch!

Urban Harvest is a very cool concept. Wellington lawyer and mum, Jo Freeman, got together with a whole group of local food producers to create New Zealand’s first online fresh food market, delivering quality seasonal produce and artisan food direct from local producers to customers’ doors.

In February, Urban Harvest began delivery to customers in Wellington City. Due to strong customer demand, Urban Harvest now also delivers to the Hutt Valley, Eastbourne and north to Pukerua Bay (excluding rural addresses).

Well worth checking our their cool website and blog about us!

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