As a frugal mom, breastfeeding activist, real food advocate and environmentalist, I take my shopping purchases seriously. It is because of this that this Halloween I find myself in a dilemma about what to hand out to the trick or treaters.
For the past 6 years we lived in a semi-rural neighbourhood where my kids were the only kids around. I only needed to buy candy for up to three small ones. One year we got nobody! So it was easy to head to the health food store and buy a few pieces of organic, free-trade, dark chocolate morsels that were wrapped in recyclable paper. One year I gave out organic juice boxes – again recyclable. This year, however, we live in a new neighbourhood, and it is full of children. It might even be one of those 100-kid-visitors-on-Halloween kind of places. I’m shuddering to think what I will be forced to buy to afford this holiday.
I’ll tell you what I won’t be buying:
Nestlé
I will not buy any Nestlé products. In fact, my husband was recently at a counter with some Haagen Daz ice cream treats for our daughters when I practically pounced on him and made him take them back to the freezer, all the while obnoxiously chiding reminding him (sorry honey) “Our family doesn’t buy Nestlé products!” Poor guy. It didn’t say Nestlé anywhere on the package. He doesn’t have these things memorized like I do.
What Did Nestle Do To Deserve A Boycott? Annie at PhD in Parenting, Elita at Blacktating, Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess, Michelle at Mama Bear and Danielle Friedland aka @that_danielle created a new website called BooNestle as a resource for people to make an informed decision about boycotting Nestle at Halloween, if not for life. They say it all way better than I could. If you aren’t sure what the Nestlé Boycott is all about, please start with their post. On Twitter, the #noNestle or #booNestle hashtags will also find you a lot of information.
The trick to not buying Nestlé is knowing what kinds of foods and candies they make. Thankfully, BooNestlé has provided everyone with a list of brands to avoid for a Nestlé-free Halloween. Take it with you when you go shopping. The need-to-know-this-very-minute-because-I’m-heading-out-to-buy-Halloween-candy-right-now list is as follows.
Please don’t buy:
- Butterfinger, Crunch, Kit Kat, Wonka, Raisinets, Goobers, Baby Ruth, Aero, Smarties, Sno-Caps, 100 Grand
- Wonka, Pixy Stix, Gobstoppers, Spree, Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Fun Dip, Runts, SweeTarts, Gummies, or Harry Potter candy.
What are the alternatives?
Even if other candy manufacturers aren’t corrupt like Nestlé their products are still full of processed sugars like high fructose corn syrup and modified vegetable oils. As a real food advocate who doesn’t normally buy these kinds of foods anyway, I don’t want to support companies that contribute to our social health problems. “But if it’s only once a year?” you ask. Did you know that last year Americans spent nearly 2 billion dollars on Halloween candy? Yes, only buying candy once a year has an impact.
What are the Healthier Options?
If I am expecting one hundred trick or treaters, this doesn’t leave me many affordable options from ethically minded companies. In fact, I am left with these options. (Please tell me if you know of more)
- Clif bars, Enviro Kidz crispy rice snacks, Annie’s cheddar bunnies, honey sticks, organic fruit juice lollipops from Yummy Earth, organic dark chocolate, organic juice boxes, boxes of raisins, packets of nuts or seeds, fresh fruit, or home made goodies.
While these are better than Nestlé and the other candy manufacturers, some of them are still made up of processed foods. (Wheat and cheese doesn’t press itself into a bunny shape all by itself.) I could make my own goodies but a lot of people won’t let their kids eat homemade treats on Halloween. You know, because I might poison them their kids might have food allergies. Same with fruit. Remember all those razor blade stories from when we were kids? However, one suggestion could be to include a list of ingredients on the home baked treats or even your address or phone number so they could double check you’re not a psycho.
I like the Fair Trade chocolate idea because if I go this route I know I am helping to:
- END poverty among cocoa farmers,
- END abusive child labor in the cocoa industry,
- PROMOTE Fair Trade, and
- PROTECT the environment.
I could forego edibles entirely.
I thought maybe I would buy some glow bracelets from the Dollar Store, sure to be a hit with kids of all ages, four per package for $1.25. But these items quickly become landfill. However, more useful or re-useable ideas include:
- Note pads and pencils, pens, crayons, felts, or pencil crayons, hair elastics, erasers, stickers, temporary tattoos, bouncy balls, garden seed packets, coins, etc.
(Again, if you’re shopping for one hundred, it gets expensive.)
In the end, we are all left with making a purchase decision is the most ethical and which one is the most affordable. Which one will have the least impact on the environment? Is it worth it, in my household, to “suck it up” or “let it go” for one day, or is it more important to honour my values? I know I don’t want to turn off my lights and pretend no one is home, but I’m still not sure what I will hand out this year. All I know for sure is that it won’t be Nestlé.
I hope you will join me in me in the Nestlé boycott. If you do, and decide to write a post about it, make sure you head to Annie’s blog and let her know. She’ll add it to a growing list of posts by bloggers who are doing the same thing for International Nestlé Free Week October 25-31, 2010.
Linked up to Real Food Wednesdays and Works for Me Wednesday.
What do you plan to hand out to trick or treaters this year? Do you give this topic as much thought as I do? I would love to hear back from the real food and natural parenting community on this one for sure!
Related posts:
- What Is Natural Parenting? Embracing Real Food
- Breast Milk or Food? A Breastfeeding Toddler Dilemma
- Why I Love The Real Food Community
Tags: booNestle, Fair trade chocolate, frugal, Halloween candy alternatives, Halloween-free Nestle, noNestle
Posted by Melodie Environmental Responsibility, Real Food Nutrition, Social Media Subscribe to RSS feed
Thanks for all the great info!!! When I was growing up, our neighbour was a dentist and used to hand out toothbrushes. What better thing to get on halloween, along with all that candy?! My parents used to make SURE we went to the dentist’s house…
=)
Melissa´s last [type] ..BABY
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:58 am
I wish I was a dentist! I’ve always thought tooth brushes were awesome ideas and yet I’ve heard so many people shoot it down. I think you can only get them cheap being in the biz though. Darn!
[Reply]
Melissa Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Shoot! Who knew toothbrushes were expensive? I even thought they were a good idea when I was a kid! Maybe you should think about going into dentistry…
I linked you on our Mothers of Change website;
http://www.mothersofchange.com.....-week.html
Melissa´s last [type] ..Chomper
[Reply]
I love the idea of honey sticks – a natural product that’s still a sweet treat
Also, maybe we could look at it as a donation. Even if you spend $200 on fair-trade, organic chocolate, it’s an investment in someone else’s future, right?
Kim´s last [type] ..on the edge
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:57 am
I did think of the money being looked at as a donation. I don’t know if my 1 oz piece of chocolate will change anyone’s life but I know I need to feel good about whatever I choose to do.
[Reply]
“Do you give this topic as much thought as I do?”
I laughed at this, because you’ve already seen my Halloween candy post and know I’ve given the topic thorough consideration!
But I’ll mention here that we do mostly non-consumables like Play-Doh, temporary tattoos, pencils and notepads, etc. We’ve also done the YummyEarth lollipops (no HFCS, no food dyes). This year we’re doing a mix of all these things.
Christina @ Spoonfed´s last [type] ..Candy insanity: Halloween here we come
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:55 am
Maybe I will do a mix too Christina. That’s actually a really good idea!
[Reply]
Mel~ This is fabulous and well written! It took me 3 hours to do food shopping yesterday because I was checking so many labels and trying to make sure there were no inadvertent Nestle purchases! I love all the alternative ideas you give…. I can tell you when my kids were little.. (reminder to all they are 31.25.and 22) I NEVER thought about any of these things. I am glad there is so much better information out now. I hope my grandchildren can now benefit! Thanks!
StorkStories´s last [type] ..CIMS urges ACOG gt Remove Barriers to VBAC
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:47 am
One day too late then hey Melissa! Oops! As far as you not thinking about these things 20-25 years ago, well, there are still people today who don’t think of these things so you really don’t show your age whatsoever girl!
[Reply]
Did you mention pretzels? We live in an apartment with controlled access, so probably no trick-or-treaters unless any kids actually live in our building. So we don’t have to decide what to hand out. I always like pencils as a kid but Hubby thought it was lame (silly boy). And you can always buy what you feel you can afford, and when you’re out, turn off your porch light!
Maman A Droit´s last [type] ..Getting Ready for Daddy
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Pretzels are a pretty good idea. I guess I didn’t put them down because I have never liked pretzels so they aren’t something I’ve ever bought. I honestly don’t even know what the ingredients are in pretzels other than wheat and salt. Maybe they would be a good idea because I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any. Ha ha!
[Reply]
This probably isn’t a real solution for you, but we just don’t celebrate Halloween. Though my main reasons for not celebrating are not connected to these issues, the whole overindulgence in candy is just ‘icing on the cake’ for us. It makes shopping for Halloween a lot easier when you just don’t do it, ha!
Erica @ ChildOrganics´s last [type] ..SARKisms for Sanity
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Absolutely Erica! All the more power to you girl. I love Halloween though. It was a big part of my childhood, dressing up was so fun for me, as was making decorations and cutting up pumpkins. About the purchasing on my end though – I am starting to think maybe I should just pretend I’m not home, or actually go out for the night. I’m still figuring it all out. Thanks for your comment!
[Reply]
I’ve just never liked Halloween, not even as a child. When I told my mom I really didn’t want to do anything for it, we started our own tradition. We rarely had candy in the house, so we’d buy the candy on sale, put it in a bowl, then turn out the lights, pretend we weren’t home, put on a movie, and eat the candy. It turned into a very fun tradition for us and was a rare treat for us getting candy. My little girl currently is too little for the whole trick or treating thing and we try so hard to eat real food, but I think I might just continue w/ my childhood tradition. But maybe I’ll make special goodies or something. I want my kids to eat healthy, but I also don’t want to push it so hard that they go crazy when I’m not around. We try to live by the 80/20 rule: we try to eat healthy 80% of the time so that the 20% doesn’t do much damage. But who knows what I’ll think when my daughter is older. We’ll be farther along on our real food journey and I may not be as willing to compromise. Also, I’m feeling pretty lax about the candy thing currently, since dark chocolate is about the only thing helping my morning sickness for the past two days. Downing the stuff like it’s…well…candy.
Thanks for the post: I did love the idea about giving out non-food items! Never occurred to me before!
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:42 am
That’s an awesome tradition! Unfortunately for my situation here, I LOVE Halloween. After my best friend and I were too old to trick or treat we decorated her mom’s house and dressed up every year until we graduated from high school. My friend is still really into it and even got married on Halloween. As for the treats, I will let my girls go out and eat a few pieces but then that’s it. Someone gave me the idea this year of having a “Switch Witch” come and take away the rest of the candy and leave a small present in its place. We might try that this year.
[Reply]
About the fair trade chocolate, I saw BBC’s documentary called Chocolate, the bitter truth (available on youtube) that talked about the chocolate issue and mentioned that even the fair trade stuff is very often picked by child slaves. Just thought I’d let you know.
[Reply]
Melodie Reply:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Ugh! Really? That’s so awful. Okay, scratch fair trade chocolate off my list until I can find out if some brands are more ethical than others. Thanks for letting me know!
[Reply]
We get 100+ kids in our neighbourhood. And I admit it, I just buy regular candy in bulk because it’s cheap and the kids like it. My mom always handed out raisins when I was a child, and I found that mortifying, so I may be overcompensating.
But I absolutely boycott Nestle – just as I do all year long.
Amber´s last [type] ..Halloween Mess
[Reply]
“Wheat and cheese doesn’t press itself into a bunny shape” — that was hilarious.
I was JUST complaining about this in Twitter today. I want to be responsible, but dammit, we’re broke! It pissed mr off that the healthier and more responsible choices are all so much more expensive. So Danielle pointed out some YummyEarth lollipops to me that cost $16 USD for a box of 125. Perfect! That’s it for us.
[Reply]
We’re lucky that we don’t get too many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. Enough that we buy candy, but not enough to have to be so much.
I always boycott Nestle and while the others are often just as bad (just not as big and truly heartless) we do buy them for Halloween. Next year I may look into doing a mix of options though, I like that idea!
Brenna´s last [type] ..Wordless Wednesday: This is why I support the Nestl boycott
[Reply]
Kit Kats = Mommy’s Time Out
Sorry.
Michelle´s last [type] ..quotThere is no footprint too small…quot
[Reply]
[...] Halloween Candy Dilemma for The Frugal Mom, Lactivist, Real Food Advocate and Environmentalist: Melodie from Breastfeeding Moms Unite gives us ethical Halloween inspiration. [...]
We’re in a secured building, too, so we don’t get anybody. Even before, when we were in two different non-secured apartments, we never did. Which might be a function of apartments vs. houses, but I think kids around here don’t do the door-to-door trick-or-treating as much as the community trick-or-treating. There are business junctions in our area that put on store-to-store trick-or-treating, so I think the kids fill up there. (Our kid does!)
That was just to say that I don’t have to think about it as hard as you, but if I did, I would be in your boat! I must admit, I’d probably just go for non-Nestle candy, though, and call it a day. But, then again, I really like candy.
I guess I have to change myself before I try to change the neighborhood…
[Reply]
We don’t celebrate either. It’s for religious reasons, but like Erica the overindulgance issue makes it easier.
I think pencils are one of the best choices as far as health and environmental concerns. You know how hard it is to throw away a pencil? Seriously I have pencils from 30 years ago at my house. If you want to be really fancy you could have them printed up w/ the #boonestle or something on them. (might be a little late for this year but for next year)
mrsculpepper´s last [type] ..Healthcare providers and Domestic Violence
[Reply]
[...] have decided that the best way to deal with my Halloween Candy Dilemma is to skip town. Literally. Even though I just printed out the Our Candy Bowl is Nestle Free [...]
Great post – wish I had been here to read it a few days ago, I bought Butterfingers without even thinking about Nestle
Boo me, right? I haven’t been keeping up with the blogs lately so I haven’t even seen the Boo Nestle website. What a good idea!
My six year-old goes to about six houses every year and then decides she has enough candy and is ready to go home, so we never have huge bags of candy to contend with. I let my kids have a few pieces here and there but they seem to forget about rather quickly if I keep it out of sight. Not sure how long this is going to last though . . .
St. Louis Smart Mama´s last [type] ..Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
[Reply]