News - Area children trick-or-treat in reverse

The program was created last year by Global Exchange – an organization advocating human rights and fair trade practices – and is intended to raise awareness of poverty, child labor and environmental damage from unsustainable farming practices in countries that produce most of the world’s chocolate. Children participating in reverse trick-or-treating are given samples of fair trade chocolates along with a note to raise awareness about such inhumane practices.

Kim Anderson, owner of Mango Tree Imports in Ballston Spa, has been an advocate of fair trade labor practices since she and her husband lived in Paraguay during the late 90s. Upon moving to Saratoga County they decided to open a fair trade store since no such shop existed in the area at the time.

Last Saturday, Anderson and her husband co-hosted an event to educate adults and children about chocolate and sugar in the developing world. Following the presentation they distributed 300 fair trade chocolate packages to local kids and their families as part of the reverse trick-or-treating program.

Each child received a bag containing 15 fair trade chocolates and a card attached to each chocolate informing people about child labor in the cocoa industry. Anderson said the children have been very responsive to the idea, including a group of local Girl Scouts who were present to take part in the program.

In terms of what people take away from it, Anderson said she hopes people read the cards and realize that as consumers we have a lot of buying power and that what we buy links back to a human somehow. In terms of the children, she hopes the program will help to empower them as educators.

“The more aware we become about such practices, and the more we realize that we are interconnected and that every action affects somebody somewhere along the way, the better off we will be as consumers,” she said.

Anderson and her husband are also currently working with the village of Ballston Spa to make the community the first fair trade town in New York State. They expect to make the official announcement sometime in January.

The Anderson’s are not the only ones advocating the reverse trick-or-treating program this Halloween. Members of the Social Justice Committee at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Saratoga Springs are also handing out fair trade chocolates to children in their congregation.

Committee member Nancy Berggren said the church handed out chocolate packages to 25 children taking part in religious education classes last Sunday.

Berggren believes getting involved in such programs is important because adults need to make children aware that the link between their everyday actions and the choices they make can have an effect on people around the world.

“I think every time you can open up a few more people’s eyes to treating their fellow man better it is a good idea,” she said.

The reverse trick-or-treating program was created in 2007 after the chocolate industry failed to meet a self-imposed deadline on an initiative that called for an end to abusive child labor.

Individuals can order the fair trade chocolates by visiting the Global Exchange website at: www.globalexhange.org.

To learn more about fair trade products locally, contact Mango Tree Imports at (518) 884-4652

or by email at mangotreeny@verizon.net.