Letter to the Editor: Response from The Hershey Company

I saw Alisa Patience’s recent letter titled, “Boycott Hershey’s and Child Slavery.” I wanted to share a broader perspective about the issue and what we at Hershey are doing about it.

First, Alisa’s statement that “Hershey’s has children as young as five working for them” is simply not true. We do not own or operate any cocoa farms in West Africa or anywhere in the world. Most of the cocoa in the region is grown on family farms managed by local farmers.

However, with 70 percent of the world’s cocoa supply coming from West Africa, there are entire communities in that region dependent on this crop. Illegal use of child labor by some cocoa farmers can occur when poor economic and social…