September 23, 2026
Every Halloween, millions of families share a simple ritual. A child reaches into a bowl, picks a favorite treat and races toward the next front porch.
The moments feel effortless. Magical. Memorable. And they should.
Behind these moments are thousands of Hershey makers whose work begins months before October—creating, packaging and moving the treats and snacks that help families celebrate Halloween.
Throughout my career in supply chain leadership, I've learned that successful operations begin with people. Hersheyween brings that to life at extraordinary scale, when our teams come together to help bring to life one of America's most anticipated seasonal celebrations.
Who Makes Hersheyween Possible?
This season, our makers will produce nearly 100 million pounds of chocolate and sweets and help move products across roughly 1.4 million miles of transportation routes. That’s enough to circle the Earth more than 57 times.
But the figure that matters most to me is one that's easy to overlook. Bringing Hersheyween to life takes more than 1.5 million employee hours. Behind every hour is a person showing up with skill, focus, and pride in what they make. When you add those hours together, you're really measuring the dedication of chocolatiers and makers helping create moments families look forward to all year.
How Does Hershey Prepare for Halloween?
Producing Halloween candy at this scale requires careful planning, precision and teamwork across nearly every part of the business. Each season builds on the last, with product, packaging, R&D, quality, sensory, engineering, planning, manufacturing, fulfillment, logistics and retail teams carrying forward learnings and anticipating consumer and customer needs.
From there, the work becomes a carefully timed effort across the supply chain. Teams coordinate production schedules, assortment building, merchandising displays, transportation and in-store execution to ensure the right products are ready throughout a Halloween season that now spans nearly one-third of the year. Every step is powered by people who understand that each package they help produce will eventually become part of someone’s celebration.
Here’s a closer look:
- Plan: Teams anticipate seasonal needs, develop products and packaging, align customer plans and determine when products must be ready.
- Make and package: Hershey makers across production sites produce Halloween chocolate, sweets and snacks, while fulfillment teams and co-pack partners assemble assortment bags, variety packs and retail displays.
- Move: Logistics teams coordinate transportation across the network, including movement through fulfillment centers and distribution centers.
- Deliver: Products reach store shelves as consumers enter different stages of the Halloween season, with our retail sales representatives helping bring displays to life in stores across the U.S.
What Does Halloween Mean to Hershey Makers?
When I spend time with our teams, I hear how proud they are to see their work reflected in the season. A candy assortment at a Halloween party, a salty snack on a store shelf, or a Reese’s Pumpkin shared with friends gives them a direct view of the moments they help create.
Many Hershey makers have spent years, and sometimes decades, working alongside one another. They celebrate milestones, solve problems and pass knowledge from one season to the next. That shared experience is part of what allows Hershey to deliver Halloween at such scale.
“I take very, very much pride in making sure whatever is being made on my shift during my time period, people are going to enjoy,” shares LaPhonye Wilkerson, a line operator at our Reese plant. “It actually makes me feel good to know that the candy that I've made is actually in somebody's home and somebody is enjoying the candy.”
What Makes Hersheyween Possible Year After Year?
The finished products may look effortless when they reach a store shelf, at a trunk-or-treat event or a bowl on the front porch. But their journey begins months earlier with thousands of Hershey makers working across an integrated supply chain. Their expertise, teamwork and dedication make Hersheyween possible, from the first signs of Summerween to the last treat shared on Halloween night.
Mitchell Arends is Chief Supply Chain Officer at The Hershey Company, where he leads the company's integrated supply chain across manufacturing, procurement, logistics and planning. He brings more than 25 years of end-to-end supply chain leadership experience in the consumer-packaged goods industry. At Hershey, he is focused on advancing digital integration, automation and insights-driven planning while developing the people and capabilities that support the company’s growth.