Is any else as excited for Halloween as I am? Great excuse to dress up and pass out Fair Trade chocolate.

This year, we are happy to share that this year, tens of thousands of kids and adults will hand out Reverse Trick-or-Treating kits to 100,000 households in 49 states and the District of Columbia in the US and all over Canada this year! Yes! If you didn’t order an RTT kit this year, you can still get involved by passing out Reverse Trick-or-Treating and Raise the Hershey bar fliers.

You can also help spread awareness about child labor in the cocoa industry by hosting a screening of newly released documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate.

Other ways to get involved with Halloween this weekend:

  • Make an ad on Reese’s website raising awareness about forced and child labor in Hershey’s cocoa, and send it to all your friends.  If you make the ad by Monday, November 1 and CC it to fairtrade@greenamerica.org, Green America will send the best ads to Hershey.
  • According to his Facebook page, Stephen Colbert’s “March to Keep Fear Alive” is sponsored by Reese’s (owned by Hershey)!  For children in West Africa, Hershey’s/Reese’s are indeed keeping fear alive…the childrens’ fear of being trafficked into forced labor in the cocoa fields that grow cocoa for chocolate bars sold in the US.  There is a lot of buzz nationwide about this march, on Halloween eve…join the Raise the Bar Campaign in helping use that buzz to hold Hershey accountable.  If you have a Facebook account, leave a message on the wall of Stephen Colbert, the Colbert Report, and the March to Keep Fear Alive, as well as the Daily Show, raising awareness of the connection between Reese’s and child labor.  If you use Twitter, here are some suggested tweets:
  • @StephenAtHome the only thing scarier the #march4fear is the use of #ChildLabor in the production of #Reeses
  • @StephenAtHome #Reeses does have something to hide and it is scarier than peanuts: #ChildLabor
  • @ColbertReport #Reeses may contain dairy, peanuts and #ChildLabor.

Most importantly, have a safe and happy Halloween this weekend everyone!

We’re now two weeks into Fair Trade Month, so let’s continue this National Month of Action by organizing a Youth Power Party to start a Sweet Smarts chapter of your own.

Global Exchange’s Sweet Smarts campaign is a national network of individuals, from young children to senior citizens, whose simple, creative actions to educate and advocate for Fair Trade certified products transform communities and corporations to support small farmers’ efforts to build a better future for their families.

With Sweet Smarts, we’re binding together to build the next generation of social justice and environmental leaders.  We have developed new activity guides, which offer a step by step process to become a Fair Trade advocate and help end poverty, child labor, and environmental degradation by raising awareness about Fair Trade.

Here’s a message from our Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel that is included in your Youth Power Party activity guide talking about the importance of educating your community about Fair Trade.

Sweet Smart Greeting from Global Exchange on Vimeo.

Don’t miss your chance this summer to press Hershey and the rest of the cocoa industry to END grinding poverty and abusive child labor in the cocoa fields!

Celebrate Labor Day by uniting with others nationwide by doing something meaningful for labor rights!

The summer is winding to a close, and there is no better time than Labor Day weekend to make some Fair Trade s’mores.  If you have plans to be out with friends having barbecues and enjoying the nice weather…how about mixing in some Fair Trade s’mores?

Gather around the fire with your graham crackers, marshmallows, some Fair Trade Certified chocolate bars, and petitions demanding that Hershey eliminate child and forced labor from its supply chain and source Fair Trade, which requires farms to abide by international labor conventions.

You can even do it at the office this week, using the microwave!  You’ll be an instant hit with all your co-workers!

See how much fun you’ll have!  There are WONDERFUL new photos sent in by 2010 participants on our Flickr page and videos from 2008 and 2009.

Petitions, a planning checklist, and everything you need (even a Fair Trade campfire song!) are available on the S’mores page.  You can even register your s’mores online!

Please mail us your We Want More from Our S’mores petitions by September 6th.

Fair Trade Chocolate is available from your local store or Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Store.  Look for the fair trade logo on brands including Equal Exchange, Sweet Earth Chocolates, Coco-Zen, Alter Eco, and Divine.

Have fun!
-Tom and Dana
Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign Interns

For women, the road to equality has been a long (and continuous) struggle. Today marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. And while women in the U.S. celebrate Women’s Equality Day, the Fair Trade cocoa cooperative in Ghana, Kuapa Kokoo marked a major milestone in the cooperative’s history by electing their first woman president, Christiana Ohene Agyare.

Ms. Ohene Agyare was elected the cooperative’s president after gaining 1,270 votes out of 1,720 votes, thus making her the first woman president of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union (KKFU) since the union formed over 16 years ago. As you may or may not know, Kuapa Kokoo is the supplier of cocoa for Divine Chocolate and in addition is also a major shareholder in Divine Chocolate, Inc.

Ms. Agyare herself has an 11 acre cocoa farm and has been the cooperative’s Treasurer for the past four years and serves as the Recorder of her village society.

Kuapa Kokoo has strongly promoted the participation of women at every level of the organization, so the election of a female president of a true testament to the cooperative’s long term commitment to gender equality.

TransFair USA spoke with Erin Gorman, CEO of Divine Chocolate USA,

“Divine Chocolate is thrilled to share the news of this historic election with consumers and businesses in America. Cocoa plays an important role in the lives of women cocoa farmers in West Africa and through Kuapa Kokoo and Divine these same women are afforded the opportunity to have a say and an impact in the global industry. Together with women (and men) who love chocolate in America, we will continue to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farming families.”

The principle that I truly admire about the Fair Trade system is that it promotes the empowerment of women and the strong role that women play in the movement in general. This news is a strong indicator of the strides that the movement makes to ensure that women get that voice to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those around them.

So, as we reflect on Women’s Equality Day, we think about the women around the world making their own strides for equality. A big thanks to our foremothers and suffragette sisters for keeping up the good fight and giving me and my fellow ladies a chance to speak up. We still have a long ways to go, but this story shows us that we’re slowly getting there.

Saturday Aug 14, 11am-4pm
Global Exchange Fair Trade Store
4018 24th Street @ Noe Street, San Francisco

Bring your kids out to the Global Exchange store in San Francisco to join in the making of a mural that follows “Fair Trade Chocolate’s Journey from Bean to Bar”.

A fun educational neighborhood activity to foster learning about Fair Trade and a time for parents to taste FREE Fair Trade Divine Chocolate!

The cocoa for Fair Trade Divine chocolate is grown in the southern regions of Ghana by a farmers’ co-operative called Kuapa Kokoo. Most Ghanaian cocoa is grown on small family farms, and is usually intercropped with other plants and trees, such as plantains, maize and spices.  Cocoa trees grow to between 12-15 meters high and produce blossoms which when pollinated turn into cocoa pods.  Each pod contains 40 seeds which become cocoa beans.  It takes one tree’s whole crop for the year to make three big bars of Divine.

To harvest the cocoa, the pods must be cut from the trees, split open and the slimy pulp containing the beans scraped out. The bitter cocoa bean is subsequently wrapped in plantain leaves to ferment and then dried under the sun.

The beans are then shipped to Europe where they are roasted, crushed, and ground into a rich cocoa butter.  The cocoa butter is combined in varying proportions with sugar and milk and stirred continuously over several days, then cooled and molded into the delicious chocolate bars we enjoy at home!

Global Exchange Fair Trade San Francisco Store
4018 24th Street (near Noe)
San Francisco CA 94114 (map)
415.648.8068

While I think I can live with it being S’mores Day everyday during the summer, Hershey’s has designated August 10th as National S’mores Day. That’s tomorrow! We’re encouraging everyone to participate in National S’mores Day with Fair Trade chocolate with our Summertime S’mores campaign.

Enjoy this delicious holiday while also calling on Hershey’s to value social justice, the environmental and put an end to child labor in the cocoa industry by going Fair Trade.

For sweet activity ideas, organizational charts, checklists, and flyers to plan your own Fair Trade S’mores party, visit www.globalexchange.org/smoresaction.

Newly released documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate reveals shocking and disturbing new evidence  that child labor, trafficking, and slavery are continuing in the cocoa industry, nearly ten years after the cocoa industry pledged to end it.

During Halloween Week 2010, please help us raise awareness of this real-life horror.

We are calling on you and individuals nationwide who care about the welfare of children to organize film screenings – large or small – in your home, workplace, or other group.

Help ensure that as many people as possible see this important film and take action to end this tragedy.

Following screenings, attendees will be invited to sign letters asking the Hershey Company to end the use of child labor and slavery in the cocoa fields and to start sourcing Fair Trade certified cocoa, which prohibits the use of child and forced labor.

Filmmaker Roberto Romano has generously offered for you to screen this film for free; participants will be asked to pay only to cover the cost of DVD replication and postage, which will be approximately $3-6.

Our goal is to organize hundreds of screenings nationwide at house parties, schools, congregations, and other venues during a National Week of Action the last week of October.  (If late October is inconvenient, please feel free to screen it later.)

Will you help by holding a screening (or even two)?

Questions?  Email fairtrade@globalexchange.org

PS:  Reverse Trick-or-Treating is coming soon!  September 1 is the anticipated start date for kit requests.

No doubt you’re like me. Daydreaming about the weekend once, uh, Monday morning rolls around. Well, now that it is Friday, the weekend is just within our grasps so it’s perfectly alright to start plotting out your weekend activities.

Plowsharing Crafts picnic

Whether you’re at summer camp, having a backyard BBQ or having a beach bonfire, you can bring some social justice into your summertime activity by participating in Global Exchange’s Summer Fair Trade S’mores Campaign.

We are calling on Hershey’s and the rest of the cocoa industry to go Fair Trade by making a statement with our Fair Trade S’mores. It will be the most delicious political action you will ever take.

Can I get s'more?

All you have to do is grab your S’more ingredients (marshmallows, graham crackers and of course Fair Trade chocolate) gather your friends, Fair Trade s’more it up, have everyone sign the petition making a note of how many s’mores were consumed and send it in to us. Then we deliver it to Hershey’s and let your voices be heard in the name of Fair Trade.

Your fellow Fair Traders have already been joining in all the social justice fun. A few weeks ago, our friends at Plowsharing Crafts had their 25th Anniversary picnic Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, MO and had tons of yummy s’mores.

Ziming Yao having her first s'more ever

Earlier this month on our People to People blog, we spoke about our first ever U.S.-China Exchange where our Green Alternatives department promoted collaboration between the United States and China, particularly around the green economy and sustainability. So, four program participants flew in from China and learned about the local green economy in the Bay Area. Along with visiting green businesses and meeting SF government officials, the crew took a break one evening and tried their first ever s’mores! Not the biggest fans of sweets, they enjoyed the activity and learned all about the concept of Fair Trade.

Before embarking on your own Summertime S’more activity for the weekend. See our video of Global Exchange’s S’more event at Golden Gate Park last year. A typical San Francisco. Foggy and cold. But we loved every moment of it.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

July 31: Fair Trade Chocolate Tasting
Economic Justice for the Cocoa Farmers has never Tasted so Good!

Photo Credit: Divine Chocolate

Saturday July 31, 11-4pm

Join us at the Global Exchange stores in San Francisco and Berkeley to learn about the exemplary practices of Fair Trade company Divine Chocolate and to sample a FREE selection of their fine Fair Trade Chocolate:

70% Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate with Raspberries, Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut, White Chocolate with Strawberries and more!

At the heart of Divine’s heavenly tasting chocolate there is a unique story. Not only do the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ receive a Fair Trade price for their cocoa, but they also own 45% of the company, and therefore have a direct influence over how the company is run and share in the profits from the chocolate.

Kuapa Kokoo – which means good cocoa growers – has a mission to empower farmers in their efforts to gain a dignified livelihood, to increase women’s participation in all of Kuapa’s activities, and to develop environmentally friendly cultivation of cocoa. Kuapa strives to ensure that all its activities are transparent, accountable and democratic. It doesn’t cheat the farmers by using inaccurate weighing scales, as other buying agents often do, and because it operates so efficiently, it can pass on the savings to its members. After seeing the benefits Kuapa gains for its members, more and more farmers want to join and the association now has upwards of 40,000 members organized in approximately 1300 village societies.

Cocoa from Ghana is of a high quality and trades at a premium on the world market.   Kuapa Kokoo’s motto is pa pa paa – which means the best of the best in the local Twi language.

Global Exchange Fair Trade San Francisco Store
4018 24th Street (near Noe)
San Francisco CA 94114 (map)
415.648.8068

Global Exchange Fair Trade Berkeley Store
2840 College Ave (Between Russell St. and Stuart St.)
Berkeley, CA 94705 (map)
510.548.0370

Attention DC residents. This post is for you…

Global Exchange is excited to announce a special screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate just in time for World Day against Child Labor on June 12. Join us in viewing this important exposé of the international chocolate industry:

June 8, 2010, 7:00 PM
SEIU (1st Floor)
1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036 (map)

The Dark Side of Chocolate, directed by U Roberto (Robin) Romano and Miki Mistrati, investigates the repeated charges of child trafficking in the international chocolate industry. Come find out what the government and companies and are (or aren’t) doing to stop it.

Following the film, there will be a panel and discussion with Bama Athreya (Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum), Todd Larsen (Corporate Responsibility Programs Director, Green America) and U Roberto (Robin) Romano (Director, The Dark Side of Chocolate).

Sponsored by:

Africa Action, American Federation of Teachers,
Break the Chain Campaign, DC Fair Trade, Foreign Policy in Focus,
Freedom Network USA, Global Exchange, Green America,
International Labor Rights Forum, Organic Consumers Association

*PLEASE RSVP to Tim Newman at tim.newman[at]ilrf.org or 202-347-4100 ext. 113 and please bring a valid ID with you to the screening to get into the building.*
For more information about the film, please visit: www.thedarksideofchocolate.org