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Out of the 80 million chocolate Easter eggs sold each year in the UK, The Real Easter Egg is the first and only Fairtrade chocolate Easter egg to share the Easter story.
Click here to read how you can help this year and to access free resources.
How it all started
In 2008, David Marshall our founder, was given a chocolate Easter Egg. On the side of the box it read: ‘Easter is the festival of chocolate and loveliness’. He began to wonder – was it right for the manufacturer of an Easter egg to change the meaning of a religious festival in this way? Imagine the outcry if this had been done to Christmas.
He began the search for an Easter egg which mentioned the Christian story of Easter. It became clear that out of the 80 million eggs on sale there was not a single manufacturer who was willing to mention the religious aspects of the festival. Surely there had to be a place for one Easter egg which mentioned Jesus? As no one was willing to consider it he started a business, The Meaningful Chocolate Company, to manufacture the UKs first ‘Real Easter Egg’.
For it to be a ‘Real Easter Egg’ it had to reflect the Easter themes of hope and new life and do three things – have a copy of the Easter story in the box, be made from Fairtrade chocolate and support charitable causes.
The Real Easter Egg was launched in 2010. It was a real struggle as all the supermarkets turned down the idea of an Easter egg connected to faith. It was left to churches, schools and groups to place orders and fund The Meaningful Chocolate Company to begin making The Real Easter Egg.
By Easter 2023 we will have sold more than 1.8 million eggs with over 1.4 million sent through the post directly to customers. The Real Easter Egg is not available in any supermarket.
Not only has there been an increase in Fairtrade chocolate sales, but over £380,000 has been donated to charitable projects and we pay Fairtrade Premium fees to our farmers allowing them to invest in their community buying everything from school books and solar panels to providing fresh water.