Despite describing the meeting as "overwhelmingly successful" and a "cordial, wonderful, mutual session," Elder David Screven, first vice president of the Interdenominational Ministers' Conference of Greater Harrisburg, said the boycott will continue. The boycott appears to have had no effect on Hershey's earnings, which reached record levels in the last two quarters.
Screven said the two sides are in a "positive mode" and have agreed to form teams to work on the ministers' agenda.
That agenda includes increasing minority hiring and contracting practices at Harrisburg International Airport and Hershey Foods and opposition to the Harrisburg incinerator and West African child slavery in the cocoa trade, according to the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, president of the National Black Leadership Roundtable.
The ministers also are interested in looking at Hershey's minority student scholarship aid, he said.
Fauntroy, who attended the meeting and was scheduled to speak at a community rally last night at St. Paul Baptist Church in Harrisburg, said the boycott will continue until the issues are resolved.
The company released a two sentence written statement after the meeting: "We were pleased to meet with Interdenominational Ministers' Conference representatives and colleagues today and discuss Hershey Foods' active commitment to employment and supplier diversity, corporate citizenship and responsible labor practices in West African cocoa production. We appreciate the IMC's insight on these important issues and look forward to a continued dialogue."
The IMC last summer began the boycott of the candymaker and Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co. by dramatically dropping Hershey's chocolate bars into trash containers.
The ministers maintained that as two of the area's largest employers, the companies could influence minority contracting practices at Harrisburg International Airport, which is undergoing a $222 million expansion. Both companies have repeatedly denied any role in airport decisions.
In recent months the ministers broadened the rationale for the boycott to include the Harrisburg incinerator and West African child slavery issues.
The IMC has no immediate plans to meet with Hershey Entertainment executives.