It's National S'mores Day: Make Yours Fair Trade

by Tim Newman · 2010-08-10 10:21:00 UTC
Topics:

Sweet, gooey s'mores are a favorite summer campfire treat and the Hershey Company and Kraft Foods have named today, August 10th, National S'mores Day. If you are someone who cares about child labor, forced labor, and trafficking you can make your s'mores more sweet for cocoa farmers globally by serving up Fair Trade S'mores. Global Exchange has a lot of fun resources on how to make Fair Trade S'mores and other activities you can do with friends and families as you cook up a delicious treat.

While Hershey (along with Kraft) has launched special S'mores promotions this summer linking their chocolate with smiles and family bonding, cocoa production is not all fun and games for West African farmers. These farmers often live in poverty and cut costs by using children to perform hazardous work. Trafficking from neighboring countries into Cote d'Ivoire to work on cocoa farms remains a problem years after chocolate companies agreed to clean up their supply chains.

While many companies are shifting toward purchasing cocoa that has been certified to meet certain labor, social and environmental standards, Hershey stands out as the one major chocolate company that has made no such commitments. Consumers will need to speak up if we want Hershey to do more to trace its cocoa supply chain and take responsibility for labor rights abuses in the production of the main ingredient in its chocolate bars.

Today is a great opportunity to make some Fair Trade S'mores and tell Hershey that you want more from your s'mores. Here are three easy ways to take action right now:

  1. Take action on Facebook by going to Hershey's Facebook page and leaving a comment on the company's post about S'mores like this: "Hershey: I want more from my S'mores! It is time for you to trace your cocoa supply chain and make life more sweet and fair for cocoa farmers and workers!" Feel free to personalize your comment. You can also post this blog post to your Facebook page.

  2. Take action on Twitter by "tweeting" this post as well as something like this: "PLZ RT! TODAY is National #Smores Day! Make yours Fair Trade and tell #Hershey you want more from your smores! http://3bl.me/qqphwy"

  3. Take action on Change.org by signing this petition to Hershey and other big chocolate companies and sharing it with friends through Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

This summer, let's tell Hershey that we want savoring our favorite desserts to be an enjoyable experience for all of those involved in producing chocolate. There's no better way to celebrate National S'mores Day!

Photo credit: foodistablog

Tim Newman is a campaigns assistant at the International Labor Rights Forum. He also works on the Stop Firestone campaign.

RELATED PETITION

Hershey: Raise the Bar!
VICTORY!
54,297 People
PREVIOUS STORY:
Red Light Special: Olive Oil Mint Lip Balm Heals Lips and Hearts
NEXT STORY:
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, how are you going to take action?

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.