Tell Hershey to Have a Heart - Send CEO a Valentine!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborrights.org/

Tell Hershey to Go Fair Trade this Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is a major chocolate buying holiday, but your gifts for your sweetheart should not come at the expense of workers rights! Take action to stop forced, trafficked and child labor in the cocoa industry by sending a Valentine to Hershey and hosting a screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate! Click the link below for details.

» Take action here: http://laborrights.org/stop-child-forced-labor/cocoa-campaign/valentines-day-2011-actions-for-the-hershey-campaign



Valentine's Day is a major chocolate buying holiday, but your gifts for your sweetheart should not come at the expense of workers rights! Forced labor, child labor and trafficking continues in the cocoa industry in West Africa. Almost all major chocolate companies have begun to commit to using independent, third-party programs to certify that their cocoa suppliers comply with international labor standards, but Hershey continues to lag behind the industry.

There are two easy and fun ways to take action to tell Hershey to go Fair Trade leading up to Valentine's Day:

1. SEND VALENTINES TO HERSHEY! Create your own personalized Valentine telling Hershey to start using Fair Trade Certified cocoa for its products, like the iconic chocolate Kiss. Address your Valentine to Hershey CEO David J. West and mail it to: 100 Crystal A Drive, Hershey, PA 17033. You can also download this PDF of a Valentine to mail to the company. If you make your own Valentine, please do scan an image of it and send it to ILRF Campaigns Director Tim Newman at: tim.newmanilrf.org. We'll post the best ones online! Please mail your Valentines to Hershey by February 18, 2011.

2. HOST A SCREENING OF THE DARK SIDE OF CHOCOLATE! You can host a screening of this documentary that exposes the ongoing use of trafficked child labor in the cocoa industry in your community. Click here to order your DVD and click here to download a screening toolkit. ILRF and partner organizations across the country are especially encouraging people to host screenings during a national week of action leading up to Valentine's Day from February 4-14.

Together we can support cocoa farmers and workers and make Valentine's Day sweet for everyone!

Also, don't forget about our petitions to Hershey! You can download the petition here and collect signatures in your community.