Every year, Halloween sparks the sale of $3.9 BILLION on candy in the United States. But that's not the only impressive statistic related to trick-or-treating.
Several years after World War II, a couple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had an idea — what if kids also asked for coins to donate to UNICEF, the U.N. agency that protects the rights of children worldwide. This year marks the 75th anniversary of that initiative, called Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. And some $200 million has been collected during that time span.
This year's campaign features supermodel Heidi Klum, one of an esteemed group of past and present celebrity supporters like Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Sammy Davis Jr., Maya Angelou, Bob McGrath and even Lassie.
"We want to raise awareness for the importance of protecting children — making sure they're healthy, that they're well fed," says Shelley Diamond, a spokesperson with UNICEF USA.
But in 2025, it's not just the anniversary that's of note. At a time of a dramatic and abrupt scaling back of federal foreign aid, some say this simple practice is more important than ever.
"We have absolutely adequate resources to make sure that [children's] rights are respected," says Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development think tank in Washington, D.C. "But frankly, governments worldwide, including the United States, have failed in that."
He believes that in an imperfect world, it's best to support those in need however we can. And that includes Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, which Kenny lauds as "a fantastic win" — one that has the added benefit of getting kids interested in "their fellow children worldwide."
An idea that captured the nation
The origin of the program goes back to the late 1940s. After World War II, hunger stalked large swaths of the globe, including Europe and parts of Asia. A Presbyterian pastor at the time, Clyde Allison and his wife, Mary Emma, believed in the power of community service. When Mary Emma saw well-fed American kids trick or treating on Halloween, she had an idea.
Monroe Allison, her son, recalls her thinking. "These kids could be doing something really meaningful instead of just collecting candy for themselves," he says. "So it was my mother who demanded of my father, 'We have to convert this into something good.'"
"Their hearts yearned to be able to have these kids collect money for kids who needed it," adds Diane Allison, Monroe's wife. "It's vitally important because of that experience of empathy for other children — the power to do something."
And so the Halloween collections were born. The Allisons organized children from church Sunday schools to gather shoes, winter coats, soap and coins for kids in need elsewhere in the world. For the first couple of years, the Church World Service, a faith-based group that responds to global hunger and poverty, distributed the goods.
After connecting with philanthropist Gertrude Ely and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Allisons soon recognized that UNICEF was an ideal charity to partner with. And by 1951, Diane says the agency had transformed the nascent idea into a national program of coin collecting.
The campaign involved orange collection boxes (often converted milk boxes), public service announcements, and songs including the one Diane wrote. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, that's what we say… Kids helping kids in the whole world today," she croons during her interview with NPR.
"Children helping one another"
The program was a hit. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF zoomed like a wildfire," says Monroe Allison. "And the children who participate in it — and that's my parents' idea — get as much out of this as the people receiving it."
One such recipient is Manyang Kher, one of the lost boys of Sudan, who fled his home in the early 1990s during his country's civil war. He landed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia where he lived for 13 years. "Our parents were not there with us," he says.
Kher remembers UNICEF providing him and other children with food and school supplies. These were items, he was told, that came from American children.
"I know there was some kid helping us from New York or somewhere there," he says. "It's very excit[ing] to hear, 'Oh, there's a lot of kids that want to help children in refugee camp.' To see kid helping kid, children helping one another."
Kher credits those gifts with helping him get critical calories as a boy — and an education.
"Hope, that's what it mean for me at the time," he says. "To help children be better human being, and that is what creates society."
The program enters a new and uncertain era
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began a decade before the establishment of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which went on to provide a wide array of humanitarian aid and development programs across the globe. It now appears to have outlasted the foreign aid agency, which the Trump administration quickly dismantled.
But Kenny says the UNICEF campaign reveals longstanding American support for international aid. "This program has been running for 75 years for a reason, right?" he asks. "It's that a lot of Americans really do care, despite what's going on in Washington. It's even more important than ever that Americans stand up and be counted in that way."
The U.S. is still the largest foreign aid donor worldwide in absolute dollars. (Though, Kenny notes, "if you put it on a per capita level or as a percentage of GDP," other countries top the list.) But global need far outweighs that support.
According to Kenny, this is where the UNICEF program can play a role. "It provides some of the financing and some of the awareness, and we need both," he says. "I hope that, as this is children we're talking about, when they grow up and start running the government themselves, it's a sign that the future will look a little more generous than today."
And it's a practice that has thrived from generation to generation. Beverley Weiler, age 75, remembers trick or treating for UNICEF as a kid. On Halloween, she and her Quaker friends set up a table in their Santa Fe neighborhood with information, dolls from different countries and pumpkin soup — so that children and families can learn about the program and do it themselves. She says the needs of the world are more visible than ever, including to children — and Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF offers an antidote.
"It gives them somewhere to lay down their worries a little," Weiler says, "and gives them something positive and productive to be a part of that makes sense in a world that often doesn't make sense."
Copyright 2025 NPR
