| | Published May 11th, 2011
| Friends of Fair Trade
| | Rebecca Eckland |  | | From left: Will Watson of Lafayette, Corban Ricketts of Moraga, and Ryan McCormick of Orinda, with Fair Trade chocolate bars at the MVPC reSource Center where chocolate will continue to be available for sale.
Photo provided by Siv Ricketts
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Sixth-grader Corban Ricketts looks his age: he's spunky and he likes chocolate. Yet his mother, Siv Ricketts, was not surprised when Corban accepted $100 in seed money from the Moraga Valley Presbyterian church to begin a campaign to better the world. According to Ricketts, Corban and his pastor researched the chocolate industry and found the source of nearly everyone's favorite indulgence is harvested by unpaid child laborers in West Africa.
"At the time, my youngest was selling See's Candies to raise money for the Moraga schools," Ricketts said, "and it was such a contradiction: chocolate products that had exploited children in Africa were going to better the lives of children here?"
To raise awareness, Corban used his $100 to purchase Divine Chocolate bars; fair trade chocolate bars that do not use cocoa beans from unpaid, underage workers. The wrappers are decorated in lovely gilded script and the "fair trade certified" symbol. He, along with peers from Lamorinda, sold bars. Combined they have sold over 250 bars to date. All proceeds from these sales will be sent to Not For Sale, a nationwide organization started by Bay Area resident David Batstone that is aimed at ending all varieties of child exploitation worldwide.
Corban's literature (included with each purchase) reports that, per annum, Americans spend $13 billion on chocolate products; 70% of those come from West Africa where the cocoa harvesters are 12-16 years of age.
In addition to selling Divine Chocolate bars, Corban is also circulating a petition encouraging Hershey's to use fair trade beans. He has three pages of signatures so far.
Interested parties can purchase these Divine Chocolate bars from the Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church for $4 on Sundays.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA