Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Trick-or-Treat for Fair Trade; Farmers & Free Samples (Fair Trade Month, Part I)

October is Fair Trade Month, and there's all sorts of great stuff going on! Below are actions you can take and events to participate in. Check in tomorrow for a list of Fair Trade Month sales/promotions and some contests you can enter. (What is fair trade, you ask? Click here!)

Take Action for Fair Trade

  • Try reverse trick-or-treating for fair trade! Children and/or their parents can do this going door-to-door, spreading the word about fair trade chocolate and other fair trade products.
    • If you apply by October 12, you can get free kits complete with fair trade chocolate if you're with a school, church, or other organization working with children, and you're willing to work with the media-- click here.
    • You can order free Halloween fair trade cards by mail at this link before 10/12-- or print out your own here.
    • Global Exchange is selling their annual Fair Trade Trick-or-Treat Kits for Halloween; for $15 you get 42 pieces of fair trade chocolate to give trick-or-treaters and informative Halloween cards to go with them (plus hand-crafted fair trade Halloween streamers!)
  • Celebrate the launch of Fair Trade Towns USA; download the free toolkit and start a movement to make your town a Fair Trade Town.

Attend Events and Meet Fair Trade Farmers
  • Equal Exchange is coordinating a Faces of Fair Trade tour this month with events in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Boston, New Haven, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC-- international and local farmers will speak about fair trade, and most events include tastings.
  • Divine Chocolate, one of my favorites because the farmers not only get fair trade prices for their cocoa but are also part-owners of the company, is also holding events with fair trade farmers (and free, tasty chocolate giveaways!) Most of them are in the midwest (Chicago, Twin Cities, Madison) but they'll also be in Baltimore on October 20. Click here for details.
  • Check out this page at the United Students for Fair Trade site to see what the college students in your area are coordinating for Fair Trade Month.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

To close out Fair Trade month, as well as raise awareness of an the persisting problem of child labor & endemic poverty in the cocoa trade, Equal Exchange and many other like-minded organizations have organized "Reverse Trick-or-Treating" with the participation of about 2,000 kids and adults in about 200 North America towns and cities.

To learn more about it see www(dot)equalexchange(dot)coop/Reverse