World Day Against Child Labor was on Sunday, June 12th. Four days prior, the ‘Raise the Bar Hershey’ rally took place in front of the Hershey store in Times Square.

School children and social justice activists, along with Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and Lee Cutler, Secretary Treasurer of New York State United Teachers Union, rallied to call on Hershey to eliminate forced, trafficked and child labor from its cocoa supply chain.

The NYDailyNews.com reported:

Students from Public School 87, Brooklyn International High School and Benedictine Academy from Elizabeth, N.J., were among the 150 demonstrators, yelling, “Hershey’s: tastes good, feels bad.” The students have been studying global issues and were there as part of a field trip.

When reached for comment, Hershey’s spokesman, Kirt Saville, did not address the company’s child labor practices, but said it has been committed for the past 50 years to improving the West African cocoa communities.

One thing is certain; Hershey lags behind its competitors when it comes to taking responsibility for the communities from which it sources cocoa.

The rally was a spirited success, as you can probably tell from the pictures. If you’d like to see more pics from the event, check out these Flickr pages:

• Raise the Bar Hershey Flickr
• New York Fair Trade Flickr
• Greenelent Flickr

 

TAKE ACTION!

• Sign the petition telling Hershey Interim CEO John Bilbrey to Raise the Bar Hershey!
• Help support Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Campaign at www.globalexchange.org/donatefairtrade.
• Stay tuned for a video from the rally, which will be posted this week right here on our Fair Trade blog.