This year, thousands of children across 299 cities in the US and Canada are turning the traditional trick-or-treating Halloween ritual on its head. Reversing the trick or treat model, young people will be giving away tens of thousands of samples of Fair Trade Certified dark chocolate to address the persistent problems of chronic poverty in cocoa-growing communities, abysmal working conditions, and the use of exploited child labor in the Ivory Coast—which produces 40% of the world's cocoa.

The Reverse-Trick-or-Treating program (reversetrickortreating.org) has joined human and labor rights groups, such as Global Exchange, International Labor Rights Fund, and Co-op America, with Fair trade chocolate companies, such as Equal Exchange, and Sweet Earth, to raise awareness with children and adults about Fair Trade Certified chocolate as a solution to poverty and labor abuses in the cocoa industry. Fair Trade farmers are required to abide by international labor laws that prohibit illegal child labor. In addition, the Fair Trade system also ensures that farmers receive a fair, stable price for their cocoa and that environmentally sustainable farming practices are applied.

US consumers eat 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate annually, representing nearly half the world's supply. The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture for USAID has estimated that 284,000 children work in abusive child labor conditions on cocoa farms in West Africa, the world's largest cocoa producer, and that 64% of those children are under 14 years old. Reverse-trick-or-treating comes on the heels of a statement released by 47 organizations and fair trade companies around the world outlining key elements to an ethical cocoa sourcing policy.

The Fair Trade Chocolate is provided by Equal Exchange, a full service provider of high quality, organic coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and healthy snacks to grocery stores, restaurants, and places of worship nationwide. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting over 30 small farmer cooperatives in 16 countries around the world. In keeping with its Fair Trade mission Equal Exchange is a worker cooperative, owned and democratically controlled by its employees.