Press Release: Coco-Zen is on a Quest to Create Thousands of "Fair Trade Homes" for World Fair Trade Day, 2010

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Joyce Kushner
joycekushner@gmail.com
650.550.9718

COCO-ZEN IS ON A QUEST TO CREATE THOUSANDS OF “FAIR TRADE HOMES” FOR WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY, 2010

Coco-Zen is a part of “Fair Trade My Home,” a grass-roots campaign of fair trade companies, individuals and organizations who are inviting friends and fans to join the fair trade movement and make their home a “Fair Trade Home” in honor of World Fair Trade Day, May 8th, 2010. The goal is to create as many self-declared Fair Trade Home’s as possible by having people submit a photo or video showing which fair trade goods they regularly purchase and use in their home. Submissions are being gathered at www.fairtrademyhome.com.

Fair trade is an alternative way of doing trade, where the people producing a product are treated fairly, paid fairly, and are being fair to the environment. A home that is committed to the purchase and use of fair trade goods is a “Fair Trade Home.”

What started in America by one woman with a vision has become a global movement involving over 60 countries, 1.5 million workers. In America, over 1,500 companies and retailers offer fair trade goods, there are 13 fair trade towns, and over 300 college campuses that support fair trade.

The purpose of Fair Trade My Home is to raise greater awareness of fair trade to the American consumer, so that each person will choose to integrate more fair trade purchases into his or her regular buying habits, and cut down on poverty both in America and around the world. Coco-Zen not only creates fair trade chocolate products, Coco-Zen is actively encouraging the community to join in making homes fair.


ABOUT WORLD FAIR TRADE DAY
World Fair Trade Day is a global celebration of fair trade and will be held in 2010 on May 8th. In North America, Fair Trade Resource Network is leading the World Fair Trade Day 2010 event with complimentary efforts from the Fair Trade the White House campaign. In 2009, World Fair Trade Day involved 65,020 people at 456 events covered by 101 media stories.

www.ftrn.org

ABOUT FAIR TRADE MY HOME
The theme of Fair Trade My Home is an extension of the Fair Trade the White House campaign, a coalition of fair trade vendors and organizations which are inviting the First Lady to join the fair trade movement and make the White House a “Fair Trade Home.

www.fairtrademyhome.com

www.fairtradewhitehouse.com


ABOUT COCO-ZEN
The philosophy that Coco-Zen’s founder, Joyce Kushner, has employed throughout the company is that all of our actions not only affect ourselves but also the world around us, and she stays true to that philosophy by using only organic and Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients in all Coco-Zen products. With this philosophy in place it it’s easy to see why Joyce is supporting such an important mission. In particular, Joyce hopes that more awareness will be shed on the labor abuses of the cocoa industry, especially with regards to forced child labor in the cocoa plantations of West Africa where the majority of the world’s consumed cocoa is produced. For more information on Coco-Zen please visit www.Coco-Zen.com.

Press Release: Tens of Thousands of Schoolchildren Nationwide Will Protest Poverty and Child Labor-Tainted Cocoa during the Third Annual Reverse Trick

For Immediate Release

Contact

Leila Belcher

LJB Public Relations

leila@ljbpublicrelations.com

(303) 345-1805

Tens of Thousands of Schoolchildren Nationwide Will Protest Poverty and Child Labor-Tainted Cocoa during the Third Annual Reverse Trick-or-Treating this Halloween

San Francisco Bay Area children will join kids across all 50 US States and Canada to urge nearly a quarter million households to shift their purchasing to Fair Trade certified chocolate, coffee, etc. by handing Fair Trade chocolate samples to adults.

Ten to twenty thousand groups of children will hand chocolate back to adults during their regular neighborhood trick-or-treating rounds this Halloween. The children will distribute Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate attached to a card explaining the labor and environmental problems in the cocoa industry globally and how Fair Trade provides a solution. The event, Reverse Trick-or-Treating, was launched three years ago to raise awareness of the pervasive problem of child labor, forced labor and trafficking in the cocoa fields, to empower consumers to press the chocolate industry for more fair cocoa sourcing policies, to shift the industry toward sourcing Fair Trade certified cocoa, and to inform consumers about Fair Trade companies that are leading the way to industry reform. Fair Trade standards prohibit the use of abusive child labor, contain extensive environmental sustainability protections, and enable farmers to escape poverty.

The Reverse-Trick-or-Treating program has joined nonprofit organizations, such as Global Exchange, with Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate companies such as Equal Exchange, Alter Eco, Sweet Earth, Coco-Zen and local schools, faith groups and youth organizations to raise public awareness about Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate.

This year’s event comes on the heels of two important developments in the cocoa industry. First, Interpol announced in August that it identified and rescued fifty-four children from slavery in cocoa fields in Cote d’Ivoire. The children were as young as 11 years old, endured hazardous working conditions, labored 12 hours a day, and were not paid for their work. This demonstrates that the chocolate industry has still not gone far enough to end child slavery and trafficking in the cocoa fields, even though the top chocolate companies committed to end these practices as part of the Harkin-Engel Protocol signed in 2001. Over sixty national nonprofit organizations and chocolate companies have united to call on the cocoa industry to embrace stronger cocoa sourcing standards in a statement entitled the “Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing” which can be viewed at www.reversetrickortreating.org.

Second, in 2009, Cadbury became the first major chocolate brand to achieve Fair Trade certification for its Dairy Milk chocolate bars in the United Kingdom, with planned certification in additional countries. Human rights, Fair Trade, and anti-trafficking activists have applauded Cadbury’s leadership, while urging the company to extend Fair Trade certification to its products distributed in the United States. A group of advocates have also been actively pressing Hershey’s to become the first mainstream US-based company achieve Fair Trade certification.

“Kids have a well-developed sense of fairness. I regularly hear stories of US schoolchildren who are really outraged to learn that mainstream chocolate companies are making them complicit in the enslavement of their peers,” said Adrienne Fitch-Frankel, Director of Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Campaign, “Kids are eager to show solidarity and make it possible for their peers to do go to school and go out and play. That is why so many kids are thrilled to participate in Reverse Trick-or-Treating and make a difference. Now, it’s up to the chocolate companies to listen to their important message.”

“Unfortunately, here in the US, few people know of chocolate’s ‘dirty little secret’. Few realize that modern cocoa farming is notorious for unfair labor practice – often guilty of unsafe working conditions, pay that is far below living wages, and worst of all, use of forced child labor. I believe that this campaign will help raise the level of awareness around Fair Trade to that which “organic” now has,” said Joyce Kushner, owner and founder of Coco-Zen.

To cover this story, interview a participating family, or follow children during reverse-trick-or-treating, please contact Adrienne Fitch-Frankel at 415-575-5553 or Adrienne@globalexchange.org.

The Reverse Trick-or-Treating campaign is an initiative of the human rights advocacy group Global Exchange, which has a long track record of successfully encouraging major corporations to adopt new business practices.

A full line of Fair Trade Certified truffles, Coco-Zen is a company with a conscience. Founded by Bay Area mother and chocoholic, Joyce Kushner, Coco-Zen has joined other Fair Trade chocolate companies in donating Fair Trade Certified™ chocolates to the Reverse Trick-or-Treating campaign. The philosophy that Joyce has employed throughout the company is that all of our actions not only affect ourselves but also the world around us and she stays true to that philosophy by using only organic and Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate in all Coco-Zen products.

Nearly a quarter million Fair Trade Chocolates and informational cards have been provided in the United States by Equal Exchange, Alter Eco, Sweet Earth and Coco-Zen, and in Canada by La Siembra, under the leadership of Equal Exchange. Equal Exchange is a full service provider of high quality, organic coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate and healthy snacks. 100% of Equal Exchange products are fairly traded, benefiting over 30 small farmer cooperatives in 16 countries around the world.

The national organizations with a lead role in Reverse Trick-or-Treating are Africa Action, Fair Trade Federation, Global Exchange, Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, Not for Sale, Oasis/Stop the Traffik, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the United Methodist Church.

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Press Release: Coco-Zen Supports “Fair Trade the White House” Campaign

For Immediate Release

Contact

Leila Belcher

LJB Public Relations

leila@ljbpublicrelations.com

(303) 345-1805

Coco-Zen Supports “Fair Trade the White House” Campaign

Coco-Zen has become an Official Supporter of the Fair Trade the White House campaign. A full line of Fair Trade Certified truffles, Coco-Zen is a company with a conscience. Founded by Bay Area mother and chocoholic, Joyce Kushner, Coco-Zen has joined the Fair Trade the White House campaign whose mission is to invite the First Lady to make the White House a “Fair Trade Home.” The hope is that this outreach to the First Lady will help to inspire American consumers to start purchasing more Fair Trade products which eventually would result in less poverty in America and around the world. Coco-Zen’s Fair Trade truffles will be included in the outreach gift bag given to the First Lady.

The philosophy that Joyce has employed throughout the company is that all of our actions not only affect ourselves but also the world around us and she stays true to that philosophy by using only organic and Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate in all Coco-Zen products. With this philosophy in place it it’s easy to see why Joyce is supporting such an important mission. In particular, Joyce hopes that by inviting the First Lady to join the Fair Trade movement, more awareness will be shed on the labor abuses of the cocoa industry, especially with regards to forced child labor in the cocoa plantations of West Africa where the majority of the world’s consumed cocoa is produced. For more information on Coco-Zen please visit http://www.Coco-Zen.com

About Fair Trade the White House

WHO: We are a grass-roots, nonpartisan coalition of fair trade organizations, vendors, retailers, schools, individuals and consumers.

WHAT: We are cordially inviting the First Lady to join the fair trade movement and declare the White House a “Fair Trade Home.”

WHY: Having the White House seek to purchase and use fair trade goods encourages households throughout America to refine their buying habits toward ethical consumption so that poverty, both in America and around the world, is reduced.

WHERE: We are seeking an endorsement by the First Lady to be celebrated through a vendor gift bag exchange, which will be given to the First Lady and her staff by key voices in the fair trade movement.

WHEN: Our public invitation to the First Lady was unsealed May 29th, 2009. Throughout the year, we will seek online signatures from consumers and organizations to show the First Lady the momentum and support of the fair trade movement. We hope that the First Lady will accept our invitation so that a ceremony is conducted in May 2010 in honor of “World Fair Trade Day.”

Fair Trade the White House is a coalition of fair trade vendors and organizations that are inviting the First Lady to join the fair trade movement and make the White House a “Fair Trade Home.” The purpose of the outreach is to raise greater awareness of fair trade to the American consumer so each person will choose to “Join the Fair Party,” and integrate more fair trade purchases into their regular buying habits, so that poverty is reduced in America and around the world.

Fair Trade the White House was initiated in February 2009 by Anti-Body (anti poverty, beautiful body), a fair trade body-care company. A steering committee joined Anti-Body in June 2009 and is comprised of representatives from Alter Eco, Dr. Bronner’s, Equal Exchange, Fair For Life (IMO), Fair Trade Federation, Fair Trade Resource Network, Green America, Handmade Expressions, L. Ishii & Associates, TransFair USA, and advocate Jacqueline DeCarlo.

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Press Release: ATTN: Chocoholics--Chocolate Body Treats…From Head to Toe

For Immediate Release

Contact

Leila Belcher

LJB Public Relations

leila@ljbpublicrelations.com

(303) 345-1805

ATTN: Chocoholics

Chocolate Body Treats…From Head to Toe

Coco-Zen, a new company specializing in gourmet, Fair Trade chocolates, also offers a very special treat for the body. Coco-Zen’s Chocolate Body Treats are all natural and made from organic and Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients.

For the true chocoholic, Coco-Zen offers the Chocolate Body Gift Set. For only $40 chocolate lovers will receive:

Chocolate Lotion in Chocolate Milkshake: Go ahead, slather rich chocolate cream on yourself, but make sure it is this non-greasy formula that contains organic jojoba oil and unrefined shea butter to leave your skin silky, smooth and smelling delicious.

Chocolate Soap in Chocolate Mint Bliss: This unique and decadent soap looks and smells like a chunk of rich, dark chocolate. Made with a variety of exotic organic oils, organic/Fair Trade cocoa butter and organic/Fair Trade cocoa powder, this Chocolate Soap has a wonderful, creamy lather and will turn your bath or shower into a truly decadent experience.

Chocolate Salt Scrub in Chocolate Brownie: Mineral-rich Dead Sea Salts help revitalize the skin, remove toxins from the body and relax sore muscles while organic almond oil and organic aloe vera work to soften skin.

Chocolate Lip Balm in Chocolate Mint Bliss: Craving chocolate but not the calories? This chocolate lip balm is flavored with real organic and Fair Trade chocolate and sweetened with a touch of Stevia. While your nose and taste buds dance in chocolate ecstasy, your lips will bathe in moisturizing organic coconut cream and extra virgin olive oil.

Chocolate Edible Lip Scrub in Chocolate Brown Sugar: Rub on and lick off! Made from organic brown sugar, organic oils, organic honey and vitamin E, this edible lip scrub will exfoliate and moisturize your lips while satisfying a chocolate craving.

A full line of truffles and chocolate body products, Coco-Zen, was founded when new mother and chocoholic, Joyce Kushner, decided to take a break from the frenetic pace of retail marketing to stay at home to care for her newborn son. Joyce quickly discovered the magical world of chocolate and soon after experimenting with different recipes in the kitchen she started Coco-Zen and happily left the corporate world behind. The philosophy that Joyce has employed throughout the company is that all of our actions not only affect ourselves but also the world around us and she stays true to that philosophy by using only organic and Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate in all Coco-Zen products.

The Coco-Zen Chocolate Body Gift Set is available for $40 at

http://www.Coco-Zen.com

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