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This Valentine's Day… Take Action & Engage Others… to END child labor and trafficking in the cocoa industry!Valentine's Day is a major chocolate buying holiday, but gifts for your sweetheart should not come at the expense of worker rights! Forced labor, child labor and trafficking continue in the cocoa industry in West Africa. |
Teachers—
click here for classroom activities.
TAKE ACTION:Here's how YOU can make a difference!
Tell Hershey to Have a Heart!
- Create your own personalized Valentine telling Hershey to use Fair Trade cocoa for its products, like the iconic chocolate Kiss. Address your valentine to Hershey CEO John Bilbrey at 100 Crystal A Drive, Hershey, PA 17033. Please mail your Valentines to Hershey by February 17, 2012.
- You can also download a Valentine to color at www.raisethebarhershey.org.
- If you make your own Valentine, please scan it and send the image to the Fair Trade Project at fairtrade@labor-religion.org. We'll post some of our favorites online!
Why Hershey? Almost all major chocolate companies have begun to commit to using independent, third-party programs to certify that their cocoa suppliers comply with international labor standards, but Hershey continues to lag behind the industry.
Collect signatures on the Raise the Bar Hershey petition calling on Hershey to eliminate the child labor, forced labor and trafficking in their cocoa supply. Download a petition here.
Make your Valentine chocolate Fair Trade. Fair Trade provides a solution to global economic injustice! Fair Trade principles include a fair price for producers, the prohibition of child labor, community development, environmental sustainability and direct relationships between consumers and producers. See Green America’s chocolate scorecard.
Host a Screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate
- You can raise awareness by hosting a screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate in your school or community. This important documentary exposes the ongoing use of trafficked child labor in the cocoa industry. Click here to obtain a copy and toolkit, including discussion guide and background information.
- Visit Fair Trade Towns USA to download a list of more films about Fair Trade.
Learn more! Visit www.RaisetheBarHershey.org
ENGAGE OTHERS: These classroom activities are great for audiences of ALL ages!
- Sit Down If Exercise demonstrates that we are connected to producers around the world. Grade 3-adult.
- Hard Work Growing Cocoa illustrates (using photos) what it takes to grow cocoa. From Win Win Solutions Curriculum, Equal Exchange, pp. 45-54. Grades 4-9.
- What’s Fair Game is a fun simulation exercise in which students, as fair trade and non-fair trade farmers, experience benefits of membership in a cooperative, community development and long-term trading relationships. From Win Win Solutions, Equal Exchange, pp. 55-63. Grade 4-adult.
- Sweet Injustice: the Chocolate Game brings alive the injustices of world trade through role playing. Adapted from People and Planet. Grade 3-adult.
- Chocolate Choice has students compare the attributes of fair trade and non fair trade chocolate. From Setting a Higher Bar, Global Exchange, pp. 3.1-3.3. Grades 2-5. Fair Trade Chocolate Book available for free download.
- What is Fair Trade? explores the meaning and concept of the terms “fair” and “trade.” From Setting a Higher Bar, Global Exchange. Grades 2-5, pp. 4.1-4.4. Fair Trade Chocolate Book available for free download.
- Taste Chocolate Like the Experts allows students the opportunity to learn more about this favorite food through a hands-on sensory experience. Be sure to download the Chocolate Tasting Placemat. From Equal Exchange’s fundraising program. Grade 4-adult.
- How Is Our World Interconnected? asks students to consider the source of their apparel and reflect on the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King and Barbara Kingsolver. From Focus on Fair Trade Curriculum, Fair Trade USA. Grade 6-adult.
- The Dark Side of Chocolate is a powerful documentary exposing child labor, forced labor and human trafficking in the cocoa fields of West Africa. It is a great resource for increasing awareness of this critical labor rights issue. Discussion guide and background information. Grade 7-adult.
More Fair Trade Curricula Resources here.
NOTE: Heart and Hand Valentine card image from Organic Consumer Association.
Download OCA Valentine's Cards by Liz Welch with message about Fair Trade and Organics here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/valentines/index.cfm
Last Updated: 02/06/2012
© Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
