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If a child knocks on your door this Halloween and hands you candy, chances are you’ve just been reverse trick-or-treated by Global Exchange. The human rights organization has hit on a novel way of getting the word out about fair trade practices: they’re giving kids trial sizes of fair trade chocolate bars attached to an information card to hand out at houses while trick-or-treating.
The card reads, in part, “Like Halloween, chocolate should be a source of joy for all children, including those in countries where cocoa is grown. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. Despite six years of promises from major chocolate manufacturers little has been done to tackle the documented problem of forced child labor on many farms that supply their cocoa. Moreover, low cocoa prices have left cocoa farmers in poverty year after year.”
Kind of a bummer on a holiday that’s best known for sugar rushes, but the cause is a good one, even if canvassing for it is tricky. Can tots as young as four (such as Oliver, in the press release) really understand the complexities of global trade enough to want to willingly hand out the candy on their own? Global Exchange is betting yes. It says that thousands of kids in the U.S. and Canada will be reverse trick-or-treating this year, so be ready to defend your Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
I'm from Equal Exchange - the Fair Trade co-operative who helped develop the Reverse campaign with our friends and allies at Global Exchange. In fact, we're supplying most of the 225,000 pieces of Fair Trade chocolate that are being distributed.
I'm glad, but not surprised, to see that most folks understand and are comfortable with this unusual campaign.
But for the others I thought I'd offer a...+READ
I'm from Equal Exchange - the Fair Trade co-operative who helped develop the Reverse campaign with our friends and allies at Global Exchange. In fact, we're supplying most of the 225,000 pieces of Fair Trade chocolate that are being distributed.
I'm glad, but not surprised, to see that most folks understand and are comfortable with this unusual campaign.
But for the others I thought I'd offer a little extra background.
* One precedent for this idea was not only of the UNICEF campaign but also our years of working with faith-based groups. Service organizations like the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the Presbyterian Hunger Project and especially the Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee have consistently asked us for ways to get kids more interested in, and engaged with, Fair Trade. The Reverse campaign fits right in with that effort. Kids love chocolate. Kids learn more about where it comes from and how. And kids get to take action and help other kids on the other side of the world.
* re: age appropriateness. We and the other sponsoring organizations, are trusting in the commonsense and judgment of the adults in the almost 1,000 participating congregations, schools, Girl Scout troupes, etc. We’ve imagined that most of the time the participating children will in fact be those old enough to understand the need to do something about the forced child labor problem.
* This is the 2nd Halloween for the campaign. We started much smaller last year, but we got such an enthusiastic response from the participating families that we expanded our effort 6-fold. Even so we quickly ran out of cards and chocolate. So it seems we struck a chord.
* Lastly, we’d love it if the chocolate industry made campaigns like this unnecessary. Unfortunately a just released US dep’t of Labor funded study documents the glacial pace of reform by the industry. Consequently, for now we’ll need to get the word out through grassroots activities like these.-COLLAPSE
Race is an issue because the children involved in forced cacao production are in Africa. You seem to care a lot more about American four year olds being "exploited" by adults one day a year than African children being exploited 365 days a year.
Small children can understand things if explained to them in an age-appropriate way. There's no age too young to start teaching children about compassion...+READ
Race is an issue because the children involved in forced cacao production are in Africa. You seem to care a lot more about American four year olds being "exploited" by adults one day a year than African children being exploited 365 days a year.
Small children can understand things if explained to them in an age-appropriate way. There's no age too young to start teaching children about compassion for others. And it's not a new thing -- as mentioned above, I went trick or treating for Unicef when I was a child -- maybe five or six -- more than 40 years ago.-COLLAPSE
I'd say don't underestimate the kids.
For the purposes of the promotion, a 4year old carries more "awwww" value, but the reality is that it'll be the 7-10 year olds who really get into this. I remember all my friends going out for Trick-or-treat- for UNICEF. It was geeky but had a meaning most kids understood and appreciated.
I missed the candy frenzy, but the anticipation was still there,...+READ
I'd say don't underestimate the kids.
For the purposes of the promotion, a 4year old carries more "awwww" value, but the reality is that it'll be the 7-10 year olds who really get into this. I remember all my friends going out for Trick-or-treat- for UNICEF. It was geeky but had a meaning most kids understood and appreciated.
I missed the candy frenzy, but the anticipation was still there, we still dressed up, and had a great time. My older brother was kind enough(well, more likely strongly encouraged) to share some of his candy with me.
By the way, the Halloween of Hallmark has been corrupted for along time. If you (or your kids) have never gone out with buddies or sibs ALONE on Halloween, well....you missed it , sadly to say.-COLLAPSE
As I'm not a Republican, I can't speak for them. Speaking for myself, I know that when a 4-year-old is running around on Halloween concerning himself with political issues that he can't possibly understand, he is being exploited by adults.
Why in the world you brought race into this, I have no idea.
So being against forced labor of children is "liberal"? And here I thought the Republicans claimed to be the party of freedom and family values. Or doesn't that extend to poor black children?
Liberals have perfected the art of politicizing the activities of children.
It would've been great if you had posted about this earlier as the deadline to order the chocolate and cards for reverse trick-or-treating was October 13th.