Fair Trade Alumni Write About Their Experience!

Some Fair Trade Chocolate

I realized we never really recommended any Fair Trade Chocolate companies so far, so below I’ve listed some we have encountered along the way. Art Bar is a personal favorite as it seems to be the most widely available (if you are in the NYC area I have seen them sold at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sunshine Cinemas, and the 4th Street Food Co-op) and offers discount fundraising rates. The Co-op has Rapunzel. Whole Foods seems to have begun stocking Divine.

http://www.4thstreetfoodcoop.org/twiki/
http://www.rapunzel.com/products/rapunzel/rapunzel_chocolate_our.html
http://ithacafinechocolates.stores.yahoo.net/
http://www.divinechocolate.com/home/default.aspx

Protest at M&M/ Mars in Times Square

As a culminating activity, the students took to the streets and held a protest in front of the M&M Mars store in Times Square.  Holding banners and chanting, students engaged tourists and people walking by on the issue, educating them about fair trade practices.

More Protest Posters

Here is a link to a great article that shows that despite promises from the chocolate industry, little has been done to prevent child labor practices and to give farmers equitable wages.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/24/news/international/chocolate_bittersweet.fortune/index.htm

We are not finished yet!!!!

By no means is our mission complete. While we have brought fair trade chocolate into our community we also wanted to address the fact that depsite promises of change from the chocolate industry there is still reports of child labor taking place in the Ivory Coast.

We have planned a protest in front of the Time Square M&M store for Wednesday June 11, the day before World Day Against Child Labor.

In addition to the fact that many of the large companies still deal with farmers who use child labor we also want to bring to light Fair Trade. None of the billion dollar chocolate corporations
have addressed the issue of fair trade and the opportunity to pay cocoa farmers an equitable wage which would help them break the cycle of poverty.

Students posing with Jose…happy to have their fair trade chocolate

They couldn’t pass up on an opportunity for a photo!

They are back to their chocolate addicted ways….only this time there is no Hershey and M&M products involved. We are officialy a Fair Trade Certified Chocolate classroom.

Art Bar hits the shelves of C-Town

After Jose, the C-Town manager, agreed to place the order there were a few minor complications that delayed the arrival of Art Bar chococlate into C-Town. For about a week and a half my students were asking me “Does C-Town have Art Bar yet?” If it wasn’t for my reassurance than I am quite sure I’d have a few kids relapse. They were definitely at their breaking point and then the day had finally come.

I remember walking into C-Town and seeing the bars right up by the front counter. It was such a great feeling knowing that our students efforts had paid off. I gave Jose a big hug and purchased an art bar, fair trade certified chocolate!

Presenting the petition to C-Town

After collecting more than 400 signatures , we presented our petition to the manager of C-Town. Our students prepared statements which they read asking for C-Town to start selling Fair Trade chocolate.

Much to our delight, Jose, the store manager, was very open to what we had to say. He had never heard of Fair Trade Chocolate and he was also unaware of some of the labor practices of the major chocolate companies.

One thing that concerned Jose was the price of the chocolate. With Fair Trade Certified chocolate costing more than most of the other chocolates that C-Town carried, Jose was concerned that people from the neighborhood would not be willing to spend their money on fair trade chocolate.
But our students assured him that there were 32 customers right there in front of him who would be willing to shell out a little more money for fair trade chocolate.

After taking things into consideration Jose agreed!!! It was one of the greatest moments in my young teaching career. Our students had taken action and made a difference in their community. It was a moment of empowerment for our students who often feel like their voices are never being heard.


(pictured: Jose, the C-Town manager holding a Ithica Fine Chocolates order form and Mr. Hildreth)

Social Justice Assessment

My colleague and friend Emily Eller did a semester long independent project with my class this year as part of her NYU Graduate program. She spent the semester observing my class as we studied child labor and fair trade. Her final project was to design an alternative assessment to gauge the effectiveness of the teaching and learning that went on around this topic in my classroom. This was tricky since we were not necessarily teaching skills or concepts as much as understandings and awareness. Our idea was to set up a scenario in which students would have to apply what they’ve learned and give their own opinions about similar issues. Needless to say this is not a quantitative right/wrong type of assessment. However, we certainly had desired outcomes. Here is what we came up with.

Name_____________________________________________ Date_________________

Millions of New Yorkers ride the subway everyday. The MTA gets their cars from a factory in Africa, Subway Cars, Inc. The people who work in the factory are paid far below minimum wage. Making the subway cars exposes factory workers to many hazardous chemicals, and the machinery used to shape the cars and cut holes for doors and windows is extremely dangerous. They work very long hours, and are not allowed to have a union that would protect their rights.

1. If it would cost you a lot more money ($2 for a subway swipe versus about $6 plus tip in a taxi), and would take you longer to get somewhere, would you continue to use the subway knowing what you do about how the cars are made?
Why or why not?

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

2. What does it make you think/wonder when you learn that a reputable company such as the MTA gets their product in this manner? What does it make you think about how other companies may manufacture their products?

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

3. Name three steps you as an individual and member of a community could take to try to help the situation named above, and how they might help:

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

4. On a separate piece of paper, please draft a letter to Mr. Bob Smith, president of the Metro Transit Authority (MTA). BE SPECIFIC: Mr. Smith is willing to read letters from the general public concerning his company, but at the moment, he has no idea, “what all the fuss is about”. What do you know that he doesn’t? How can you help change the situation in Africa? What will you ask of Mr. Smith? What will you do if the situation doesn’t change?

Indy Kids Profiles Child Labor

The recent issue of “Indy Kids” (Issue #15 Summer 2008)has an excellent 2 page color spread on child labor titled “Kids At Work.” There are some really vivid photos in the article as well as it being a good resource for introducing the topic of child labor. As seasoned veterans to the cause, there wasn’t much our students didn’t already know, but it is nice to see this issue getting some (alternative) media attention.

Two documentaries are mentioned in the article, one title Stolen Childhoods which documents child labor in 8 countries and another titled No es un Joc (Not a Game). No es Joc can be viewed online (link below)with English subtitles and is about 45 minutes long (exactly a class period’s length!)

ALSO the article mentions that June 12th is World Day Against Child Labor. What will YOU do? We are currently in the process of organizing some sort of protest on this day, possibly at Times Square’s M&M’s World. Check back for details. Also mentioned is a group of students from Broad Meadows Elementary School in Quincy, Massachusetts that formed a campaign to fight child labor in 1994 after Iqbal Masih, a famous activist and spokesperson for child laborers, visited their school. Read more about Iqbal Masih and Broad Meadows’ work here.

www/mirrorimage.com/iqbal/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Masih

Some other links:

Indy Kids Issue #15 Summer ’08: http://www.indykids.net/issues/pdf/indykids_iss15.pdf
No es un Joc
http://video.google.es/videoplay?doicd=7480117350375557019

Stay tuned for more information and to see what WE will do on June 12th and how you can get involved!