18 February 2010
Divine Chocolate, the chocolate company co-owned by cocoa farmers, and partner Christian Aid, are delighted to announce the winners of the eighth national Divine Poetry Competition. 2,700 entries were received this year - more than ever before, with thousands of budding poets of all ages embracing this year’s theme: If I Owned a Chocolate Company. Heading the judging panel was Anthony Horowitz, award-winning and top-selling author of the cult children’s Alex Rider book series. The winners can listen to Anthony himself reading their poems out loud on the Divine Chocolate website (need to put weblink in here).
On judging day, Anthony said: “We were looking for three things in the poems: language, originality, and just something a bit different – whether it was humour or a different perspective. And I think all three winners give us exactly that”.
The winner of the 7-11 age group was Emil Sands from London for his thoughtful and powerfully evocative poem If All This Were Mine. Katharine Benedict of Howell’s Junior School in Pontypridd, Wales was awarded second prize.
If all this were mine
I walk to school
Endless walking
My feet hurt.
Dry sticks crunch underfoot
I start to dream
I start to dream about my Aunt’s flamboyant dress
The colours of Africa moving as she swirls around to scold me.
I like her dress
Bright with the colours of pistachio, mango
And the light blue of the lake by my village.
My father owns many cocoa fields
And makes lots and lots of chocolate.
I like chocolate
Especially Dad’s chocolate.
One day I want to be like Dad
I would love to make chocolate – only one the whole world could Taste.
My feet move to the muddy banks of the lake
And squelch across the wet marsh land.
My chocolate would be different though
My chocolate would open Africa up
The tastes and the sights would all be in there.
I would make chocolate buttons the shape of Africa.
Fruits cased in chocolate, the colours of my Aunt’s dress.
Not too sweet
Or too bitter
It would be just right.
I stop walking and stare at my run-down school
I see it in the distance
I will be late if I carry on dreaming
But I just can’t stop.
Cocoa would swirl like the crashing waves on the seven seas
The fishing nets a fragile filigree of chocolate
And the most beautiful chocolate palm trees
Swaying
Shaped like the one in my yard
Small brown huts, each roof woven from cocoa straws
Packed tight in a round box, like my village.
In my chocolate factory everything will be fair
The chocolate will look beautiful
Smell dark, taste rich and conjure up all
Of Africa’s glory.
And my workers will bring money and food back to their villages
Along with pride.
Slowly
Life might grow a little more perfect.
Their villages would have money to build water pipes
And the diseases would stop
My Mum died of a disease
If only Dad had dared to dream my dream
I would have seen her.
We’re here now
The school day is dawning on me
My feet are tired and my mind is alive.
Maybe the money I make
When I take over Dad’s fields
Can go to this school.
If I owned a Chocolate Company
All the things our cocoa farmers do
Planting crops for seasons new,
But the thing that bothers me
Is what they get paid you see.
I can stop it, make things fair
Help the farmers to show I care,
If I owned a chocolate company ……
I’d use Fairtrade products only.
I would make everlasting chewing gum
And chocolate flavoured bubble gum,
Chocolate lollies, bigger than bricks
That are all bursting with magic tricks!
Chocolate drinks and chocolate shakes
And big, exploding chocolate cakes,
Chocolate desserts topped with juicy sweets
That make you shrink the more you eat!
I’d create mouth-watering Toffee Shocks
That get bigger in your mouth until they pop,
Use Fairtrade cocoa and you will achieve:
Amazing, delicious, Divine treats.
I’d make sure the cocoa farmers get a fair deal
By selling my products at a reasonable price,
I’d share my success with them and make them proud.
Become FAIRTRADE and you can be,
Like DIVINE, my chocolate company!
In the 12-16 age group the top prize goes to Hugh Oxlade who lives in London. His poem If I Owned a Chocolate Company was brilliantly catchy and expressive. Two second prizes have been awarded to Jake Lowe of St Edward’s CE Jr High School in Leek, Staffordshire and Mikaela Cxxx of Estover Community College in Plymouth.
If I Owned a Chocolate Company …
If I were the Chief Exec.
Of Oxlade Chocolates Plc,
I’d make sure that every cheque,
Sent for our cocoa beans by me,
Was made out for a fair amount.
I’d have biscuity crunches
And soft-centred treats,
For corporate lunches
Or snacks more discreet,
A praline for every occasion!
How’s about a fruity infusion?
With Fairtrade bananas,
Meriting an inclusion,
And what’s say the famers,
See the finished product too?
If I owned a Chocolate Company
If I owned a chocolate company I would live for
1000 days
Loving the taste
Loving the smell
On the 1001 day I would give my company to the
Gracious people of Ghana
So they could live for 1000 days
Loving the taste
Loving the smell
Loving the profits as well!
If I owned a chocolate company
Chocolate is a pleasure, a small and sweet delight
One you take for granted as you taste it bite for bite.
Have you ever wondered how it all began?
Well this one starts with a cocoa bean on my father’s land.
Planted in their thousands, in a land far far away,
We live and wait to watch them grow, by month, by week, by day.
Through burning heat we harvest and sell,
To send our best to you.
And all we get, not a half of a cent
For all that we have been through.
But now it seems our hardships and pains
Are finally understood.
By chocolatiers you may know now, whose aim it is to be good.
So now my tale comes to a quick end,
With a small and simple plea,
Choose fair trade, for fair is Divine,
And just how it ought to be.
In the 17-adult category the winner is Joanne Carroll of Droylsden, Manchester with her poem A Divine Farmer’s Tale. Two second prizes were awarded to Alison Hodges from St Austell and Shirley Elmokadem from Horsham in Sussex.
A Divine Farmer’s Tale
Show me a seed and I’ll show you a shoot,
Allow me the time to tend to the root,
Permit me some water and watch my shoot grow,
Give me a fair deal and I’ll continue to sow.
I’ll nurture my crops with pride and care,
Farmers like me, all owning a share,
Of the success and profit our labours bring,
At the Divine Chocolate Company we all are kings.
Hard work in the fields throughout the heat of the day,
Until the cocoa is harvested and taken away,
I am happy though, as there is a fair price paid,
And the beans will bring pleasure when chocolate is made.
A fairtrade farmer, I am the Company Divine,
When you next savour a chocolate bar, it may be one of mine!
If I Owned a Chocolate Company …
If I owned a chocolate company,
My chocolate would unite,
The heart, mind and souls of many,
No matter what their plight.
The warm, flowing chocolate fountain,
With the truly great wisdom to think,
Of the crystal clear running water,
That is safe for my children to drink.
The sweet scented chocolate money,
With the truly great wisdom for scope,
To build the schools and friendships,
That will give my children hope.
The soft centred chocolate heart,
With the truly great wisdom of the land,
To harvest healthy cocoa beans,
And put food in my children’s hand.
If I owned a chocolate company,
My fortunes would be fair,
And I could teach my children,
That to love chocolate means to care.
Akoma
Last night I dreamed I owned
A chocolate company,
Everyone was working hard,
But it wasn’t all down to me.
You see it was co-owned
By workers and farmers alike,
I really loved that approach
And I knew there’d be no strikes!
“So, what ideas do people have?”
I asked on my first day.
“To bring us in more custom”,
I want you all to have a say.
“We need some innovations,
To make us better than the rest.
If we grab more of the market
We’ll all share the success”.
“We could hold ‘Divine’ parties”,
Someone said, “with treats galore,
And send out our catalogues,
Perhaps take them door to door?”
“With free samples”, said another,
“Let people try before they buy,
When they taste our Divine chocolate
They’ll want a huge supply”.
“What about an online chat room?”
A young woman asked, at my side,
“Where chocolate chat goes on all day,
Friends would be made far and wide”.
“As for the products”, another said
“The fruity bars are doing well,
Let’s bring out more of those,
Mango and chocolate would sell!
And expand the children’s line,
With wrapper designs that are fun.
I always think it’s preferable
To catch ‘em when they’re young!”
“I love these ideas”, I enthused,
“Any more then please come to me,
And now here’s one of mine
That I’d like you all to see”.
I held up a square bronze plaque
Engraved with the ‘Akoma’ sign
“This will be our logo”, I said.
“Something to cherish for all time.
This symbol as you well know
Means patience and harmony,
They and all Adinkra virtues
Will shine in this company”.
Everyone cheered and clapped,
But the applause soon died away,
I was waking from my dream,
To face another day.
I was sad the dream had gone,
But it could return that night.
In the meantime I’d treat myself
To a hamper of ‘Divine’ delight!
Anthony Horowitz is a fan of Divine Chocolate and says: “I was delighted to be the judge of this years’ Divine Poetry Competition because there are two things I have always loved; and they are poetry and chocolate – although not actually in that order. I first discovered Divine products 10 years ago and loved them just for the taste; without even knowing that they were a 100% Fairtrade company, and better still that 45% of their company was owned by the farmers who make the chocolate”.
The Divine Poetry Competition has become a firm fixture in the calendar of hundreds of primary and secondary schools nationwide (and is equally popular with adults). It provides teachers with an opportunity to explore fair trade in class, and a theme that combines chocolate with the issues of fairer trading never fails to inspire wonderfully creative entries. The theme for the 2009 Divine Poetry Competition asked entrants to get their creative (& chocolate) juices flowing in imagining what it would be like to own a chocolate company. Winners will shortly be receiving hampers full of Divine chocolate, Divine t-shirts, and book tokens.
Divine Chocolate and Christian Aid have regularly worked in partnership ever since the charity supported the launch of Divine in 1998. Both share the aim to alleviate poverty in the developing world. Divine’s mission is to ensure a more equitable trading relationship with cocoa farmers in West Africa. Divine is the choice for chocolate lovers who are looking for high quality products and ethical credentials they can really trust. Here in the UK we spend £3.5 billion worth of chocolate a year but chocolate is worth much more than raw cocoa beans; and cocoa farmers across the world rarely see any of the money made by selling chocolate bars. Divine Chocolate is different because as well as paying the Fairtrade price for its cocoa, Divine is actually owned by the farmers themselves. This means they share in Divine’s profits and are instrumental in the running of their chocolate brand.