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Dear Friend
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As you gather with family and friends during this season of light and love, know that incorporating Fair Trade into your celebrations will have global impact and improve the lives of others in communities across the globe. In today’s economy where profits rule, small-scale producers are often left with little hope for their families or futures. When we choose Fair Trade, we help reshape the global economy to one that works for all people and the planet.
Here are ways you can Fair Trade your celebrations this year:
Prepare a delicious Fair Trade dish to share with family and friends. Look for Fair Trade ingredients like chocolate, sugar, coffee, tea, and fruit at your local market.
Give Fair Trade gifts. Great Fair Trade gifts are available for everyone on your list. Your Fair Trade gift, from delicious chocolates to beautiful artisan creations, supports social and economic justice and is truly a gift that gives twice. For ideas, see the Holiday Gift Guide from the Fair Trade Federation.
Share the stories of Fair Trade. Include Fair Trade farmers and artisans in your celebrations by sharing the stories of their lives and how Fair Trade empowers them with dignified work, and adequate incomes to access nutrition, health care, and education for their families. Most Fair Trade products convey this information, either in packaging or online.
 Thank you! If all of us give Fair Trade this year, our collective purchasing power will have an enormous impact on lifting families out of poverty.
Fall Fair Trade Happenings
Fair Trade Hero
"At the end of my life, I won’t bring any material things with me. But I will know that I made a difference in the lives of women and children, and I will leave this world singing!"
 This October, the Labor-Religion Coalition accompanied Dominican Fair Trade coffee farmer Maria Isabel Balbuena and representatives from Fair Trade USA on a whirlwind speaking tour in the Capital Region that left advocates informed and inspired. Maria Isabel captivated her audiences in Ballston Spa and Bethlehem, at NYSUT, U Albany, Siena College, and Emma Willard School with her passion for social justice and women’s empowerment.
Maria Isabel works for FEDECARES, one of the first Fair Trade coffee cooperatives. She is the country director for Café Femenino, a social program that empowers women coffee producers in rural communities around the world.
Raise the Bar, Hershey!
 A coalition of groups including the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State, Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, and Global Exchange, as well as countless schools and congregations teamed up with Change.org to present more than 100,000 petition signatures directly to Hershey management, calling on the Hershey Company to remove forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking from its chocolate bars.
We’re pointing the spotlight on Hershey in particular because the company lags far behind its competitors when it comes to tracing its supply chain to prevent abusive child labor. We hope this extra attention will push Hershey to do right by their customers and the children of West African cocoa-growing communities.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, stay tuned for more creative ways to demand Hershey end their egregious labor rights violations!
Reverse Trick-or-Treating!
A pleasant surprise greeted people distributing candy at their door on October 31. Youth reversed the Halloween tradition to hand adults a sample of Fair Trade chocolate, accompanied by a card informing recipients of poverty and child labor problems in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade certified chocolate provides a solution. Did you participate? Send us your pictures! Email us at fairtrade@labor-religion.org.
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