As costumed children fill the streets for another year of Halloween sweets, thousands of children across 299 cities in the US and Canada are turning this traditional Halloween ritual on its head; this year, it's the kids handing out the chocolate! Reversing the trick or treat model these 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 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 grownups 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

"Chocolate connects the millions of Americans who eat it daily to the millions of growers around the world who depend on cocoa for their livelihoods," says Adrienne --Fitch-Frankel of Global Exchange. "It is unthinkable that our children are eating chocolate made with illegal child labor or slave labor; especially when a viable solution, Fair Trade, exists right now."

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. Through the 2001 Harkin-Engel Protocol, politicians and advocacy groups have pressured chocolate companies to identify and eliminate any usage of child labor in the growing and processing of cocoa beans. The cocoa industry however has not met the substantive benchmarks for eradicating abusive child labor or improving conditions on cocoa farms, despite repeated promises. A recently conducted study, commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Labor, details how little progress the industry has made towards these goals. The study will be released the week after Halloween.

"Chocolate isn't so sweet if it's made by kids in Africa who don't get to go to school," said 6 year-old Lucas Rich of Santa Monica, CA--one of thousands passing out Fair Trade chocolate to grown ups. This Halloween, the distribution of Fair Trade chocolate is intended to: demonstrate that there already exists at least one reliable, transparent tool that the dominant cocoa and chocolate companies may adopt to fight cocoa poverty; raise the profile of the chocolate made available by companies who have committed to using only Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa; and put public pressure on the large chocolate companies to follow suit.

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 Reverse Trick-or-Treat campaign was crafted by the San Francisco-based human rights advocacy group Global Exchange, which has a long track record of successfully encouraging major corporations to adopt new business practices.

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.

To interview a participating family or to follow children during reverse-trick-or-treating, please call Nell Greenberg at 510-847-9777.

For more information, visit.reversetrickortreating.org