What’s your favorite chocolate bar?
Would it still be your favorite if you found out it involved child slave labor?

“Chances are very great that a lot of the chocolate that you purchase (at the store) has had child slave labor involved in it (harvesting the cocoa bean). And we don’t think about it, because slavery is illegal here,” says Pastor Mark Terwilliger, United Methodist Church in Beach Lake. “What we don’t think about is a company like Nestle´, for example, could buy their chocolate from a plantation in Ivory Coast (West Africa), that uses slave labor. Sometimes children as young as five years old are trafficked into slavery, largely due to the desperate poverty.”

“Ivory Coast exports 50 percent of the chocolate that the world buys, probably 38 percent of the chocolate that we buy in the United States,” he said. Ghana is another country where cocoa is a leading export. It’s also another country in West Africa where workers do not receive a fair wage for their work on cocoa plantations, he said.   

    
Reverse Trick-or-treating
To draw attention to a disturbing reality, Pastor Terwilliger’s church is once again participating in something called Reverse Trick-or-treating. So, don’t be surprised this Halloween if a child knocks on your door and offers you candy. It’s “candy for a cause,” an Equal Exchange (not-for-profit organization), fairly traded, miniature chocolate bar taped to a message.

“Children could give that (Reverse Trick or treating card) to each household as a ‘thank you’ for candy. It (shows) a picture of children whose parents work in a cooperative in the Dominican Republic. So, this is a better option, for us to buy something that’s done through a cooperative that makes sure that people are paid fairly. Then villages can afford running water and schools ...,” he said.

“Despite years of promises from the major chocolate manufactures, too 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. There is a solution, enjoy Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate,” the card reads.

Pastor Terwilliger says it’s important to read the label on the chocolate you’re buying. “They should be able to tell if it’s either fairly traded or child-labor free or slave-free. It says it right on it. And if it doesn’t, then chances are likely it’s not ...Don’t buy it if it doesn’t say any of those things on the label,” he says.

 “Nestle´ is the biggest culprit,” he says. Asked if Nestle´ is knowingly doing it, Pastor Terwilliger said, “I think they’re knowingly not doing enough about it ...I did speak with a Nestle´executive who is from Ivory Coast and they said, ‘They should be happy they have work.’”

What would happen to the cost or production of chocolate if people only bought fairly traded products? “It would become more competitive. Chocolate companies would have to find other ways to make a profit than to treat their workers unfairly,” he said.

Handing out fairly traded chocolate is not a fundraiser for the church, he said. A ministry, it’s the collaborative effort of The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) of The United Methodist Church. “If people want to purchase the chocolate and cards, there still might be some available if they contact the church prior to the end of the working day on Thursday,” Pastor Terwilliger said. To contact the church, call 729-7011 between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

For more information, go to www.ReverseTrickOrTreating.org or www.equalexchange.coop/reverse.