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Non-traditional Chanukah Gelt |
By Susan Sklar, Interfaith Program Representative
Chanukah is just around the corner. On this holiday, Jews light candles, spin dreidels, give gifts, eat latkes, and give chocolate gelt to family members and friends. This year, Equal Exchange would like to encourage Jewish families to give non-traditional fairly traded chocolate pieces instead of the usual foil-wrapped chocolate coins. Consider this fact: much of the commercial Chanukah gelt available in stores is produced by children who work in deplorable conditions on cacao farms in Côte d'Ivoire, where 60 percent of name-brand chocolate comes from. Boys from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo travel to Côte d'Ivoire farms hoping to earn money for their families but are forced to work 12-hour shifts for a pittance. Among the child cacao workers in Côte d'Ivoire, 64 percent are younger than 14 years old and 66 percent of the child workers do not attend school. For a couple of cents more you can give fairly traded 4.5-gram Organic Chocolate Minis to loved ones. Although they aren’t coin shaped, they are small and appealing — perfect for playing dreidel — and will support small-scale farmers.
All of Equal Exchange's chocolate comes from Fair Trade Certified™, organic small farmer co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru. The chocolate is also certified kosher. We carry a delicious assortment of larger 3.5.oz. chocolate bars for Chanukah gifts. To purchase any of these bars go to our Retail Web store or Interfaith Web store.
Related articles:
-Alternative Gift Ideas
-V Day's Dark Side
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