Tropical Wholefoods News - August 2009

Fruitastic Competition

Competition time - Put yourself in the running for a hand-woven basket from Uganda filled to the brim with Tropical Wholefoods products (a prize worth over £20!) by answering one simple question:

What country does Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Organic Mango come from?

Correct answers will be collected and a winner chosen at random. Put your answers in the comment section of our feedback form, as well as filling out your contact details, before 30th of September to enter. Don't forget to tick 'send me more information' to get updates from Tropical Wholefoods about new competitions, free product give aways and other interesting news from TW headquarters. Good Luck!

Tritter n. A Twitter Update From or About Tropical Wholefoods

We are now on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tropicalwfoods. We'll be updating you about news and events we're attending so you can come say hello and do some tasting so welcome us officially by following us.

We're also now blogging! From abroad - and from the UK. Right now, Richard is in Afghanistan visiting Bagram Fruits, a Raisin Producer and Mountain Fruits, supplier of all our Fairtrade Apricots, Apricot Kernels, Walnuts and Almonds. Adam is off to Ghana and Uganda in the Autumn. From UK, Kate will also be sharing new recipes and keeping you up to date on new outlets for TW products. So please log onto our blog and keep in touch.

Local Support Helps Rebrand Become Success

Six months after the re-launch of the Tropical Wholefoods brand, customers are still commenting about the new design and look of the products and website. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about our unique artwork, which was designed to tell more of a story about where the fruits come from and how they get to our customers. If you have anything to say about our new look, please get in touch!

Tropical Wholefoods would like to extend our thanks to Sunderland City Council who have financially contributed to the rebrand and have been very supportive in marketing the rebranded products via their Financial Assistance to Industry Fund. We are over the moon to be based in such a Fairtrade friendly city - Sunderland was the 300th town/city in the UK to achieve Fairtrade City status back in 2007 - it was tied 300th actually, with a little town called London.

Tropical Trailwalker

Every year Oxfam holds one of the most physically challenging team events around: Trailwalker. Oxfam Trailwalker is a 100km course where teams of four have to walk - or run - in a limited time. It isn't just a physical challenge, participants also raise money to help overcome poverty and injustice around the world. It is also coming a bit of a global phenomenon with nine events in eight different countries (and it's still growing!). This year, Tropical Wholefoods were delighted to again supply snack bars to the teams to help give them that little boost. Here is an overview of the event by Oxfam:

'As you know Trailwalker 2009 took place last weekend and we are pleased to say it went incredibly well. 480 teams of four started and 1,513 (people) finished, the fastest team completed it in 10h44m - with the last team coming in at 35h14m. We've already raised £431,000 and the walkers have pledged to raise £1m. So as you can see it was a great success and everything was brilliant apart from the weather, but we didn't let that put us off.

This was an incredibly tough challenge, however your very kind donation made the world of difference to all of our walkers. So let me thank you kindly not only on behalf of Oxfam, but also on behalf of our participants, volunteers, Queens Ghurka Signals, family and friends for the support you gave them. Your Tropical Wholefoods snack bars really helped our walkers to continue on their tough journey and walk across that finish line, which was no easy task!'

If you would like to look at some of the pictures from this event, please check out Oxfam's flickr page click here.

From Trailwalking to Arctic Trekking

Tropical Wholefoods really like to get out into the world - and one of our lovely customers is going to be taking our bars to a place where no Tropical Wholefood bars have gone before - The Arctic Circle! Paddy Dillion is one of the UK's most prolific outdoor writers and photographers and has written and illustrated more than 40 guidebooks. He is currently working on a guidebook to the Arctic Circle Trail and is looking for some 'proper tasty snacks to offset some occasionally bland dehydrated food'. We hope our bars fit the bill and wish Paddy a safe (and warm) trek. If you would like to learn more about the Arctic Circle Trail, click here.

Organically Speaking, Freebies are Great!

Our good friends over at Organically Speaking are running a fantastic promotion which gives all customers buying a bag of TW mango a free Fairtrade and Organic Mango and Brazil Cereal Bar. It's a great way to try the bar for the first time, or bag a freebie of one of your already favourite snacks. Visit Organically Speaking's special offer's page to get in on the promotion.

Little Green Blog

We've just been told about a blog site that has recently been blogging on some of our products and recipes - When I went to look, I wound up spending an hour reading through some of the interesting blogs. Well worth a visit, especially for the feedback from their apricot cake baking session! The link to the list of blogs relating to Tropical Wholefoods can be found here. Happy reading...