Divine Chocolate Poetry Competition!

Then this is you chance to win Divine!

Divine Chocolate and Christian Aid invites you to write about chocolate and be in on a chance to win a box of wonderful Divine chocolates plus £30 worth of book vouchers!

Have you ever wondered how the chocolate bar sitting on the shop shelf got to be there? Or how different life is for a cocoa farmer in the hot tropics of Ghana compared to a chocoholic in the UK? 

Write a poem, which captures the epic journey cocoa makes to become our favourite chocolate treat.  It’s up to you how you tell the poem as the coca bean, farmer or chocolate gobbler!

Divine is the only Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by the farmers in Ghana – 45,000 members in total. 

Acclaimed youth writer Meg Rosoff will be judging the 2010 Divine Poetry Competition run each year by Divine Chocolate and Christian Aid. It provides a wonderful opportunity to creatively explore the issues around fairer trading; your chance to investigate the in’s and outs of the chocolate making industry.

What to do

Think about all the different stages along the bean to bar journey! Also think about how the journey bridges two very different worlds – from cocoa farmers in Africa to chocolate lovers in the UK.

Set out on your own journey of discovery. What is your bean to bar story…?

To inspire you, find out about all the different stages along the bean to bar journey; from growing the cocoa, harvesting, fermenting and drying the beans on small farms in Ghana and west Africa, then packing up the sacks of cocoa, shipping them to the chocolate factory, roasting and grinding, and mixing the vats of melted chocolate - and finally wrapping the bars ready for sending out to the shops near to where you live.

Think about how the journey also bridges two very different worlds. Cocoa farmers in Africa work very hard but it’s usually the people selling the finished chocolate bar who make the big money, while the farmers producing the raw product struggle to make enough money to survive. That’s why Divine Chocolate is trying to do things differently - by making sure cocoa farmers share in the wealth they are helping to create. 

Some facts and figures to think about…

- Cocoa farmers in Ghana get around £1.20 per kg for their cocoa, while good chocolate here in UK costs around £15 per kg or more
- Chocolate melts at body temperature – that’s why it melts so delightfully in your mouth

Conditions and how to enter

- All entries must arrive by December 17, 2010.
- All entries should be emailed to [1] or posted to Divine Poetry Competition, 4 Gainsford Street, London SE1 2NE.
- Poems must be the entrant’s original work and can be in either paper or email form.  Each poem must be marked separately with the name, school address (or home address for adult entries) and age category of the author
- Entries will only be received from the UK and Northern Ireland regions.
- There are three age categories: 7-11, 12-16 and 17-adult
- Each category will have one winner and two-runners up (subject to the judges discretion)
- The winners in each age group will receive a wonderful box of Divine chocolate and £30 in book tokens
- Runners-up in each age group will receive Divine goody bags
- No entries can be returned. And due to the large number of entries there will be no individual responses to entrants.
- Winning poems will be published on the Divine and Christian Aid websites

Note: You may download information leaflets from www.divinechocolate.com [2] or request additional leaflets from [1]. To find out everything you need to know about the bean to bar journey visit www.divinechocolate.com/about [3] and www.dubble.co.uk/bean2bar [4]; find out how Divine’s cocoa is harvested, how quality is ensured, and how chocolate is made from the beans. And you’ll learn why Divine is so different and what owning a chocolate company means for farmers in Ghana.

And that’s it. So get writing for your chance to get munching.

Don’t hesitate, and remember - originality wins

Words: Fadah Jassem
Photo: Flickr user andedam [5]

Did you know…

Divine is the only Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by the farmers in Ghana – 45,000 members in total. While Fairtrade ensures farmers receive a better deal for their cocoa and additional income to invest in their community, company ownership gives farmers a share of Divine’s profits and a stronger voice in the cocoa industry.

For more information on Divine Chocolate please visit www.divinechocolate.com [2]