It is said that more than 58 million pounds of chocolate is purchased for Valentine’s Day each year. Unfortunately, behind those chocolate treats lies the sinister truth of child and forced labor in the cocoa fields.

Child, forced and trafficked labor remain widespread in the West African cocoa fields, which is the source of 70% of the world’s cocoa. Fortunately, there is a way you can take action today to help bring an end to child slavery, poverty and environmental degradation in the cocoa fields, and that is through Fair Trade.

For four years, Global Exchange has organized its National Valentine’s Day of Action by encouraging educators nationwide to bring social justice into the classrooms by teaching Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa curriculum. Bringing Fair Trade into the classrooms teaches the youth to support small farmers across the world, who are standing up against exploitation by transforming trade one cocoa bean at a time.

Help us reach our goal of reaching 4,500 youth and you’ll be eligible to win a Fair Trade prize!

I’m an educator and I’m interested in teaching the Fair Trade curriculum.  Please send my FREE Fair Trade organic cocoa beans to use with the unit!

I’m excited to win a Fair Trade prize!  I know an educator and would love to refer them to the free Fair Trade Curriculum available online.

Once you’ve done that, here are more actions to take to make this Valentine’s Day a Fair Trade one.

I’d LOVE to make or color in valentines asking Hershey to have a heart and start sourcing Fair Trade. (Scan/email your valentine and get 10% off Global Exchange stores.)

I would like to host a Dark Side of Chocolate film screening during the National Week of Action, February 4-14.

I plan to shower my sweetie with Fair Trade chocolate this Valentine’s Day, by shopping at Global Exchange Fair Trade store’s Valentine’s Day page.

Stay updated on the Global Exchange Fair Trade campaign all year long to find out how to take action the rest of the year.

After putting up the last post about this year’s
National Valentine’s Day of Action, our Fair Trade campaign department sent over a photo from a participant.

Here’s a photo of the bulletin board outside my social studies classroom at Kellogg School in Falls Village, CT

– Amy Lake

Thanks Amy and everyone at Kellogg School for sending this along and participating. It’s great to see the Fair Trade message being spread along.


Just checked in with our Global Exchange Fair Trade Cocoa campaign and they tell us that the 2nd National Valentine’s Day of Action was a complete success. Last year, educators nationwide educated nearly 2,000 kids about Fair Trade through our National Valentine’s Day of Action. Through this action, educators used Global Exchange’s Fair Trade curriculum to teach kids about the injustices in the cocoa industry and informed them how to be socially conscious consumers by supporting Fair Trade.

Since last year we reached 2,000 kids in the classroom, we had a goal of reaching 3,000 kids and lo and behold that number was surpassed and educators used Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Curriculum to teach over 3,000 kids across 32 states. Hurray for Fair Trade!

Are you an educator and missed the National Valentine’s Day of Action this year? Teaching kids about Fair Trade isn’t limited to Valentine’s Day. Check out the curriculum today and incorporate Fair Trade into your lesson plans all year round.