Now students not only understood where chocolate came from but also understood the unjust practices used to harvest cocoa. They were angry and wanted to know how they could help. We continued our teaching and educated students about Fair Trade. After reading about the process students still did not fully grasp it. Through a simulation we were able to illustrate the point better. We had sets of students act out working on a Fair Trade farm and a non-fair trade farm. They each put in equal amounts of work but the Fair Trade farmer got paid better. We also gave one person in each group a “sick” card. The Fair Trade farmer who was sick was able to go to the doctor and pay with the money earned. While the non-fair trade farmer who was sick had to continue to work and was unable to visit the doctor and get better. This really illustrated the importance of access to community resources such as doctors and school that was not available to slaves and child laborers in most cocoa farms.
As we neared the end of our unit (or so we thought) we showed students the Fair Trade logo that they could look for so that their future candy purchases would help support Fair Trade. Students began bringing in their Halloween candy to have us search for the logo. Sadly, none of their treats had it. Some students refused to eat it. Then some of them started to notice that chocolate was in other things, like cookies. These packages were searched thoroughly for the Fair Trade logo, and also came up short.
“Well where do we find it?”
That was a great question. My co-teacher and I decided we should have a scavenger hunt. We had heard from our principal that a local health supply store actually carried the product. We decided to take our students to several familiar places that carried chocolate to see if we could find Fair Trade products there. This would help students, who were really invested in helping, know where they could have their parents shop for this. We took students to a newstand, Duane Reade, a grocery store, the health supply store, the Union Square Farmer’s Market, and finally to Whole Foods Market. We searched and searched and were only able to find what we were looking for at Whole Foods. We were stopped by security but when we told them we were going to buy something they let us through. The kids went wild when they found a whole aisle filled with Fair Trade chocolate bars, tea, hot chocolate, and other products. We took pictures and bought a few bars so that the students could taste the chocolate that they had long searched for. I probably don’t have to say this but…THEY LOVED IT!
