Chocolate Mahjongg Discussion
Published January 17, 2012This morning was my time to host our weekly MahJongg group and to no one’s surprise chocolates were part of the snack offerings. It was the little pieces of the Milk Chocolate Covered Cappuccino Biscottini that sparked a discussion about the use of children as slaves in the harvesting of cocoa. Fortunately the family-owned parent company of Dove Chocolate Discoveries™, Mars Inc. took a stand on this issue over 10 years ago:
Mars is a signatory to the Harkin-Engel Protocol and has worked with various coalitions including the World Cocoa Foundation and the International Cocoa Initiative to both combat the worst forms of child labor and invest in more sustainable communities. We are also partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Labour Organization and producing-country governments to better understand the complexities behind the issue – including awareness and attitudes towards child labor locally and identifying more effective strategies to combat trafficking – to determine how we might more productively collaborate to achieve a greater impact. See http://bit.ly/z2vNzF for more information online.
The Mars Inc., stand on child labor in countries from which they accept cocoa beans is part of their overall principles that guide their business approach and are the foundation of the company: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom.
With the promise of email to come, we continued playing all morning. To my surprise the just released DCD Spring/Summer 2012 catalog featured our focus on a producing a sustainable chocolate product. And, I just learned that we are supporting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2012:
We view our alliance with the Make-A-Wish Foundation as a natural extension of our corporate mission to create
happiness through our products and business opportunity. We look forward to matching the power of our opportunity
with the power of this charitable organization to create energy with our sales consultants and your customers and
help make life better for kids with life-threatening medical conditions and their families.
