This past Halloween, children and families spread the word about fair trade, switching up holiday conventions a bit while having a good time to boot. Folks from across the country sent in orders for the popular Reverse Trick-or-Treating kit, and Global Exchange distributed nearly 1,000 of them to supporters, both seasoned vets of Reverse Trick-or-Treating and first-timers.

Inside the kits? Delicious fair trade chocolate pieces, printed cards with an introduction to fair trade and the abuses of the cocoa industry, and an invitation to learn more on the Reverse Trick-or-Treating website.

In West Africa the abuses of the cocoa industry are rampant, including substandard wages, oftentimes forced labor. The Dark Side of Chocolate is a heart breaking documentary that we’ve been working to promote which highlights that those consigned to slavery are often children. We also released a report earlier this year titled Still Time to Raise the Bar: The REAL Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the Hershey Company 2011, which indicates that confectioner giant Hershey’s has a long way to go to ensure that it’s cocoa slavery free. As a complement to our advocacy, we’re using Reverse Trick-or-Treating to build a connection, child to child, and to enlist children as ambassadors to encourage adults to make a change in their chocolate buying habits.

To order a copy of The Dark Side of Chocolate, visit our website or email fairtrade (at) globalexchange (dot) org.

Reverse Trick-Or-Treating would not have been possible without the help of the numerous individuals and organizations we’ve worked with. Though we can’t thank everyone individually, we’d like to focus attention on the following groups:
Equal Exchange, for collaborating with us on Reverse Trick-Or- Treating for the 5th year in a row and donating fair trade chocolate for the campaign;
Coco-Zen and Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates for their generous donations;

Our partner organizations that helped with outreach:
Fair Trade Resource Network
Fair Trade Towns USA
Green America
International Labor Rights Forum
Jeannette Rankin Peace Center
Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
• Terra
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
• Our team of volunteers that came in to help stuff the kits, including the Global Exchange staff!

Reverse Trick-Or-Treating was featured in USA Today and the Boston Herald. And Holistic Moms featured RTT on their blog.

Got pictures of your participation? Send them in to kylie (at) globalexchange (dot) org.

Photo contest winner: Rasha Sharhan

Speaking of photos, the Raise the Bar, Hershey campaign spent the Halloween season collecting photos from all of you for the Hershey Halloween Photo Contest to send Hershey the clear message that we would not accept Halloween candy made with child labor. A big congratulations goes out to Rasha Sharhan from Cabrini University who submitted the winning photograph!

A special shout out also goes out to Amber Bruce and her super hero kids for submitting their photo.

In other Fair Trade chocolate news, our Raise the Bar, Hershey campaign partner, Green America traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania to present the more than 100,000 petition signatures to Hershey management demanding a fair deal for workers.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is back for it’s fifth year to give you the opportunity to treat-n-teach your neighbors!

This Halloween, you can help end the exploitation of children in the cocoa industry and raise awareness of Fair Trade! Trick-or-Treaters will be handing Fair Trade chocolate back to adults, with informational cards attached, to explain the problems of the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade presents a solution. By providing children with a way to be active, hundreds of thousands of households in the US are getting the message that child labor and forced labor will not be tolerated by our kids.

You can take part by visiting www.reversetrickortreating.org and ordering your kit today. This year, Global Exchange is offering a limited quantity of kits to individuals so be sure to get your order in quickly! 

Each kit contains 15 mini chocolates, informational cards and an instruction leaflet. The kits are free, you pay just $7.50 for shipping, but we are asking participants to round up if they are able, to help cover costs.

If you don’t manage to get one of the kits, you can still take part! Download free flyers here and pass them out on Halloween. You can purchase Fair Trade chocolate at any of our Global Exchange Stores, or check out one of the Fair Trade companies listed below.

If you are part of a group, school or organization and want to purchase a group kit, please visit Equal Exchanges order page.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is an initiative launched by the human rights organization Global Exchange in cooperation with Fair Trade companies Equal ExchangeSweet Earth Chocolates and Coco-Zen, and is a collaborative effort of countless children, youth, and adults supported by institutions including nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, Fair Trade companies, and schools.

Get your kit today!

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!

This morning as I sat down at my desk, I flipped the page of my Fair Trade calendar and was greeted with a Happy Fair Trade Month! Every year, October is designated as Fair Trade Month where we come together to spread the world about how Fair Trade is benefiting small-scale producers and artisans and why Fair Trade matters to us all.

FairTradeUSA (formerly TransFairUSA) has set up the Fair Trade Month website where you can find out about Fair Trade events taking place all month, hear from farmers and workers around the world, and find fun and creative ways to get involved and build the Fair Trade movement in your own town and all over.

FairTradeUSA CEO, Paul Rice talking to the crowd.

A few nights ago, yours truly spent the evening with the FairTradeUSA crew in San Francisco at their Fair Trade Month kick-off party. The event was filled with fellow Fair Traders, delicious treats ranging from delicious truffles from CocoZen, hummus made with La Yapa Quinoa, AlterEco chocolate and then some. Yours truly also was the lucky winner of the raffle going home with a bottle of vodka made from Fair Trade quinoa. Win! It was a truly Fair Trade event even with a Fair Trade DJ with Corinne from Global Exchange’s San Francisco Store on the ones and twos. Great event.

Fair Trade win!

Happy Fair Trade Month everyone from Global Exchange! Get involved and take action all month long. Start with signing up for Reverse Trick-or-Treating! Then register your Fair Trade Month event. I will use this weekend to enjoy my Fair Trade prizes from the other night. Happy weekend all.