No Tricks, Just Truth: Fifth Annual Reverse Trick-or-Treating!

Choose Compassionate Consumption

"If we do not start educating our youth about the connections of social activism, economic justice, and the day-to-day decisions they make in life (even the candy bar they buy at the corner store), then how can we ever expect to transform our world?"

—Elizabeth Lain Schell,
Director of Religious Education, First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn, N.Y.

On Halloween night, thousands of children and youth — including those young at heart — will unite across the United States and Canada to help do the following:

• End poverty among cocoa farmers
• End abusive child labor in the cocoa industry
• Promote fair trade
• Protect the environment

They will put a refreshing spin on the Halloween tradition by giving fair-trade chocolate back to adults, while trick-or-treating door-to-door in their communities.

This annual event — Reverse Trick-or-Treating — is part of Global Exchange's Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign in partnership with Equal Exchange. And UUSC is one of more than a dozen social-justice organizations and fair-trade food groups supporting Reverse Trick-or-Treating!

Through Reverse Trick-or-Treating, children and local groups will hand out samples of fair-trade chocolate to candy givers, as they go house to house on Halloween. What makes their sample fair-trade chocolates so special is that they come with a card describing the social and environmental costs of corporate chocolate — and offering fair trade as an alternative.

Sign up for Reverse Trick-or-Treating

Groups

Congregations, youth groups, schools, etc., organizing multiple groups of trick-or-treaters

Kits will be available to purchase October 3–7, while supplies last. Sign up to receive a reminder e-mail from Equal Exchange when it is time to order.

Each kit includes 150 mini chocolates, cards, glue dots, and instructions for assembly. The cost of each kit is $24 (maximum 2 kits per organization), plus shipping. When placing your order, please enter "UUSC" as the promotion code. Once placed, orders will arrive within 10 business days. To learn more, please visit Equal Exchange's website.

Individuals

One household or small group of trick-or-treaters

This year Global Exchange is offering 1,000 Reverse Trick-or-Treating free kits to individuals on a first-come, first-served basis — so get your order in quickly at reversetrickortreating.org!  If there are any left, the deadline to order is October 11.

Each kit contains 15 mini chocolates, informational cards, and an instruction leaflet. The kits are free; you only pay $7.50 for shipping and handling. A specific delivery date cannot be guaranteed, but kits will be mailed in mid-October and arrive in time for Halloween.

Other ways to get involved

• Order fair-trade chocolates from Equal Exchange to hand out to trick-or-treaters from your doorstep.


• Organize a screening of The Dark Side of Chocolate at your home, school, or congregation during Halloween week, October 23–31. This important new documentary reveals the nightmare of child labor, trafficking, and slavery that is continuing in the cocoa fields. Screening tool kit includes a petition for viewers to sign asking Hershey to end child labor and slavery as well as source their cocoa through fair trade. 

» Read about how UUSC promotes fair trade
» Read about the UUSC Coffee Project