Reverse Trick-or-Treating? Are You Kidding Me?
Posted
October 25, 2008 at
2:00 pm by
Hillary
It’s no longer enough to just say “thank you” after you receive candy this Halloween. Some families are in turn using trick-or-treating to publicize the child labor and poverty problems in the cocoa industry.
I’m not kidding. Reverse Trick-or-Treating really exists.
Here’s how it works. Johnny and Janie don their costumes and head out, like any other Halloween night. They ring someone’s doorbell, say “Trick or Treat!” and accept their candy. Then, the costumed crusaders hand the adult a piece of Fair Trade chocolate and a handy educational flyer.
This is the second year of Reverse Trick-or-Treating, and the web site boasts that 250,000 adults will receive Fair Trade chocolates this Halloween. There are several not-for-profit organizations participating in this initiative, and, of course, three Fair Trade chocolate companies.
Am I the only person out there who thinks this is absolutely ridiculous? Why do we have to take an American pastime and turn it into a political statement or a social justice project?
Can you hear the young Fair Trade champions out on Halloween night? “Thanks for those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Mr. Jones, but now let me enlighten you on the error of your ways.”
Plus, I’m guessing Johnny and Jamie didn’t call a family meeting with their parents and say “Hey! Let’s shill for Fair Trade this Halloween.” It’s all about overindulgent parents thinking they have a natural opportunity to force their values on their children.
The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Tags: chocolate, Fair Trade, Halloween, Reverse Trick-or-Treating, social justice, trick-or-treating |
9 Responses to “Reverse Trick-or-Treating? Are You Kidding Me?”
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1. Beth said:
October 25, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
But wait, do they still take the candy (the evil peanut butter cup)? That makes no sense!
Wouldn’t it be better to hand out fair trade chocolate at your own house? Geez.
2. Allison G-MOD said:
October 25, 2008 @ 10:15 pm
Free Chocolate?! No complaining here!
I’d love it if I handed out $.02 candy and got a piece of $.99 candy in return! Can you say profit?
It doesn’t bother me as long as the Gov doesn’t step in and change the law to say that American people can ONLY hand out PC chocolates on Halloween. THAT’S when I draw the line.
3. Rita said:
October 26, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Yeah, I guess Beth has a point–I pass out a piece of Reeses, the kid hands it back to me and gives me a piece of fair trade chocolate? So, I totally WIN! I get my candy back and another piece of new candy. How can I get some of those reverse trick-or-treaters to come to my house???
4. mully said:
October 26, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
I guess I see both points here, but I do agree with Hillary that this is a time honored fall event that for years has been about having FUN and now we have to turn it into something political. It makes me wonder whats next?
A message about mistreatment of turkeys in your Thanksgiving Day bird’s pop up timer?
5. Jessica said:
October 27, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
How obnoxious.
6. Rodney North said:
October 27, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
Hi,
I’m one of the co-creators of the Reverse Trick-or-Treat campaign and can understand that it doesn’t sit well with everyone but in the name of dialogue I’d like to offer a little more background. Maybe then it won’t seem like a strange idea.
For one, we know its not for everyone. Consequently its clearly up to the congregations, or schools or individuals to opt in if they’re interested. And we trust the commonsense of the parents in the participatory schools, Girl Scout troups, etc to ensure that their children are old enough to understand the basic ideas animating the campaign.
As for adults “forcing their values on their children” I guess we’re ok with that in this instance. It would be hard to argue that adults should not help shape the values of their children.
Of course, one’s church or house of worship is often a big part of one’s moral education. Consequently it’s encouraging that there’s wide support for this campaign in the faith-based community. Groups such as the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee are actively promoting it.
I think one reason is that its a chance to talk about, and act on, basic values like empathy. The values being encouraged here are pretty basic, such as “its good to help others who cannot help themselves” or “adults have a responsibility for the welfare of children, no matter where they live”.
Lastly, we’re finding that many kids are enjoying it. They still get to keep their candy and all as they make their rounds but they also get a rare chance to take a meaningful action and help educate others about something important.
7. Tracy said:
October 28, 2008 @ 9:15 am
I think it’s cool.
It’s an American past time sure, but is it really going to just ruin peoples nights if they learn more about fair trade? What’s the worst that could happen? Kids learn something, parents are forced to answer questions they probably don’t have answers to because it never crossed their minds where their Reeces come, and there’s free chocolate for everyone?
8. Rita said:
October 28, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
Thanks for stopping by to comment, Mr North. I know that all we buy is organic fair trade coffee these days, and it’s not for our health, but for the same reasons you mentioned about chocolate.
Chocolate seems different than coffee though. I don’t typically eat mainstream chocolate anyway–I like Godiva and Lindt, but who knows where they get their cocoa? I think an expose on how cocoa is harvested is a good thing, but rather than getting people to change their candy preferences, it’d be easier to push on the big companies to buy their cocoa from fair trade sources. Dove (the UK Dove) is doing that, now, isn’t it, for at least some of their products?
9. Rodney North said:
October 28, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
Rita,
We’re glad to chime in. We’ve been trying to raise public awareness since 2002 but its been very hard to get the media to pay attention.
While coffee & cocoa farming have much in common the market dynamics are really different such that its been easier for the large chocolate companies to resist calls to purchase even a small fraction of their cocoa on Fair Trade terms. I’ve been in some behind the scenes debates with them and advocacy groups and the large companies have always maintained an united front that explicitly rejects not only Fair Trade but any program that guarantees a higher income for farmers. Instead they’ve been stalling and/or promoting a variety of programs that can sound good but deliver very little for farmers or children.
It needs to be remembered that 90% of the world’s cocoa is grown by family farms with small plots of land and few amenities like concrete floors, electricity or indoor plumbing. You get the picture.
We, and others, have a dual strategy of both trying to get the large firms to change their practices AND encouraging the public to change their shopping habits. For now that later is having more effect. One hope is that if enough shoppers, and retailers, move to Fair Trade then the Mars & Hershey’s of the world will follow. That is what happened in the coffee and tea trades.
As for Lindt - since the child labor scandal broke in 2001 they’ve been pretty silent and follow the lead of the larger companies.
Dove (both in the US & UK) is owned by Mars. I have to assume Dove UK has switched to Fair Trade because Fair Trade is so very popular in the UK. Its an example of what I described of the corporations eventually following the lead of firms who embraced Fair Trade years ago.
At http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign you can learn about which companies are taking action - or stalling - and how you can get involved.