Pathway to Prosperity Founder Racquel Berry-Benjamin Takes a Fresh Approach to Halloween Treat-giving – Promoting Kids’ Health in the Process
An accomplished educator, transformational speaker, and astute businesswoman, Racquel Berry-Benjamin has founded two organizations with a mission to navigate families and communities toward brighter economic futures. For the Halloween holiday this year, she applied her passion for promoting children’s health – both physical and financial – to her annual trick-or-treat handouts. Using the Cash for Candy Campaign℠ created by the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC), Berry-Benjamin gave kids an interesting choice: take a piece of candy, or opt for an envelope containing cash instead.
According to Racquel, her 2024 Cash for Candy swap was a resounding success, with 82 trick-or-treaters selecting the cash option while 76 chose candy.
Pathway to Prosperity Founder Racquel Berry-Benjamin
The NFEC designed its Cash for Candy Campaign to be a fun solution for people who want to contribute to the physical and financial wellness of children in their communities. Obesity affects about 1 in every 5 American kids, so offering alternatives to sugary treats can help promote young people’s physical health. At the same time, the country faces record levels of credit card and student loan debt and severe shortage of retirement savings. Leveraging Halloween trick-or-treating as a teachable moment to give children personal finance lessons also makes a valuable investment in their financial well-being.
Having spent a childhood in poverty and two decades as an educational trailblazer, today Racquel Berry-Benjamin has shifted her focus to become an authority and advocate for financial education. She has a stated commitment to redefining the financial wellness narrative for underserved communities, and developed her “Pathways to Prosperity Generational Wealth Framework” to start and change conversations about money among individuals and families.
Racquel viewed the Cash for Candy Campaign as a way to turn the typical Halloween sugar overload into a positive message for kids’ future financial health and security. Children form their financial habits at a young age, and promotions like Cash for Candy help kickstart the process of parents talking with their kids about money. Starting these conversations early helps ensure that children become prepared for today’s financial realities.
“Education has transformative power,” Racquel Berry-Benjamin comments about the Cash for Candy promotion. “With activities like the Cash for Candy Campaign, the world becomes a classroom. My goal is to lead a financial awakening that lights the way toward building legacies of wealth for the next generations.”
Parents, treat-givers, and organizations all can participate in the annual Cash for Candy Campaign. The NFEC offers free resources and guides to take part in this important effort to promote children’s physical and financial health.