Easter Candy

Just a quick reminder to think Fair Trade when it comes to Easter chocolate this year. Not always easy to find, and maybe a bit pricier than the traditional brands (not necessarily cheaper than high end chocolates) but worth knowing that it was not harvested with child and/or slave labor.  As I like to say, speak with your dollars.  If this starts a trend, the companies that do not use Fair Trade chocolate WILL start listening and hopefully change. 

I also think this is a great teaching moment for our children.  Educate them about Fair Trade.  I've taught mine so when I said that their Easter baskets might be filled with Fair Trade chocolates, their answer was an enthusiastic YES!

Check out my previous blog post here and here for ideas on where to buy Fair Trade chocolates and if you have any favorite brands, please share in the comments section. 

Equal Exchange

If you have kids in school or even just know any school aged kids you probably get sick of the endless fundraisers.  As an active PTA parent, I know these are annoying but a much needed way for schools to raise money for field trips and other things that are considered "extras" in times of tight school budgets.  While brainstorming how could we make these more purposeful (cause let's face it, a lot of this stuff is overpriced JUNK) I heard that my daughter's yearly fundraiser was going to be FAIR TRADE and it nearly stopped me in my tracks.  I eagerly volunteered to handle the fundraiser since I feel so passionate about fair trade.  The name of the fundraiser they used is Equal Exchange.  Having never heard of them before I did a little research about them first.  Were they for real?  And yes, they are for real.

Working with Equal Exchange was positive.  There was excellent and responsive communication and they have an easy spreadsheet to talley orders and create your order to the company.  The only difficult thing was that the orders do not come sorted by student seller as some fundraising companies do.  This just means planning for time to go through and sort each order and getting some other parents to come help.

I think a great way to increase sales with this fundraiser would be to partner it with education on what Fair Trade is and why it is important.  Not only may that help increase sales but it may introduce people to Fair Trade that have never even heard of it before.

Some of the items available from Equal Exchange.

So, if you are looking for a fundraiser idea for your group, they are a good option to consider. They sell everything from chocolates, coffee and wrapping paper to unique gift items from Ten Thousand Villages.   http://www.equalexchange.coop/equal-exchange-fundraising

Stocking Stuffers with Purpose

When it comes to filling stockings, I am definitely guilty of quantity over quality, but I'm hoping to put that behind me this year, at least a little bit.  Here are some ideas to stuff those stockings with purpose.  Maybe Santa will catch on!



Candy - look for Fair Trade chocolates and organic candy canes. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and online at The Natural Candy Store are good places to look. Think quality over quantity. Had my first taste of an organic candy cane with no artifical dyes this season and it was SO good. 

Ginger Baby models a BeadforLife bracelet and Shea Butter Soap

• These headwraps from Tukula
• Lipbalm or soaps from The Body Shop, Purple Prairie or BeadforLife.
• Mints or gum from Project 7
• A $5 bracelet from BeadforLife made from recycled paper.

• One of these cute L.I.F.E. jackets for your coffee cup.  Pick them up at Whole Foods or order online. 

  Please chime in with your own suggestions!

Halloween Treats

I've been struggling with what to do for Halloween candy to hand out this year.  I know that the typical chocolates found in the grocery store are made with slave labor.  I blog about spending purposefully.  How can I with a clear conscience hand this stuff out to the kids that come to my door on Halloween?  On the other hand, it is cheap and yummy and tradition.  Then there is the issue a availability, I don't even know where to begin to find a fair trade treat.  Most fair trade chocolate candy bars are large and expensive.  Earlier this week I was determined to find something so I started searching online. 

In my search, I found this handy little list from the green living section of Good Housekeeping magazine.  The Daily Green article link

Many of the items on this list came from The Natural Candy Store, so I decided to check them out.  I picked out some adorable spider gummies and  sour gummy worms.  They are made in the USA, allergen free, gluten free & organic.  And yes, they were relatively expensive.  It was $20.30 for a 12 pack.  But as I've come to learn, we all vote with our dollars.

For a cheaper option, pretzels, fruit snacks or gummies found at the grocery store are also alternative ideas.

I was thinking about including a note about why we chose these treats.  Again, I am torn between educating people but don't want to come across as judgemental.  I think I will save the education for this blog and other social media outlets this year.

Please share your thoughts, questions and ideas on this subject!

More Purposeful Party Ideas

So I promised to share more ideas from my sister's bridal shower, and here they are!

Go purposeful in your attire. How about a cute dress from Mata Traders? 

If you have gift baskets or prizes think purposeful again.  This is not only a good place to direct your resources to support purposeful companies but it is also a great way to spread the word about products most people know little about.  I did a coffee basket with Three Avacados coffee and included their information card and sticker in the basket.  I also had a throw blanket, chick-flick and bar of fair trade chocolate for another.


Again, I would love to hear your ideas! Please share!

Fair Trade Chocolate

Maybe you’ve heard about the problem with child slavery in the chocolate industry. If you haven’t, CNN has done an investigation into the issue as part of their Freedom Project.

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/

This link also has links to more articles to help understand the issue better. In an era of government gridlock, it doesn’t seem we can or should rely on this issue to be legislated away. I personally think the best way to bring about change is to speak with our wallets.

Fair Trade chocolate is NOT easy to find. I didn’t see any at my local Target (even though they sell several higher end brands in their candy aisle) or BJ’s wholesale club.

You can order it on Amazon and I found 2 different bars of Fair Trade chocolate at Trader Joe’s, a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate variety for a very reasonable $1.99 per 3.5 ounce bar. In the name of research, the kids and I tasted these bars and they get the yummy seal of approval. Both kids liked the Dark Chocolate better (I must be raising them right), but the sugar addict in me preferred the sweeter Swiss Milk Chocolate variety. Trader Joe’s also offers some varieties of Fair Trade hot cocoa.

I also found this list of the top Fair Trade chocolates. http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/latest/fair-trade-chocolate-organic-chocolate#fbIndex1
It may be a little bit of a pain to go out of your way to find and slightly more expensive than your drugstore variety chocolate bar. I think it's worth the extra effort.