Much of the cocoa used by corporate chocolate companies to make their confections comes from children who have been trafficked and forced to work on cocoa plantations. Hershey's is certainly no exception. Over 70% of their cocoa comes from cocoa plantations in West African countries such as Burkino Faso, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire. These children (reportedly as young as six,) are forced to work long days, with no breaks, and in dangerous conditions. They are given little and unnutritious food, and they are provided poor shelter and little clothing. While working, children are often beaten and whipped, and children bear many scars from the machetes which they are given to cut cocoa pods open; some children are made to climb tall trees with chainsaws to cut down cocoa pods, and when they fall, they lose their limbs due to chainsaw accidents. Children trapped on these cocoa plantations can live their entire childhood there and never go to school to learn to read and write.

Cocoa plantations are the setting for an epidemic of child labor that the world’s largest chocolate companies promised to end nearly 20 years ago. In the article titled 'Child Labor and Slavery in The Chocolate Industry' by Food Empowerment project, one child, Drissa, who managed to escape the clutches of slavery, said, "When you eat chocolate, you are eating my flesh."

Any form of slavery or domestic servitude needs to be stopped, even more so perhaps when the victims are children. If people continue to buy Hershey's, the money only goes to support this company so their cruel and vicious practices may continue. If people choose 'Fair Trade' chocolate, the money will not go to Hershey's, but to farming families where adults use their income to invest in their communities, build schools, and hire teachers so their children may learn.

Please consider signing this petition. With enough signatures, we can put pressure on Hershey's to purchase their cocoa from cocoa-farming families and to stop their cruelty and inhumanity towards innocent children.