Chocolate that brings the Sweet Taste of Freedom
Our story begins outside the chocolate industry. During the early years of our marriage, we started sending small monthly contributions to a non-profit called International Justice Mission. Each time we sent a donation, they sent a thank you and a story about someone being rescued from human trafficking. about slavery in the United States. We were
surprised at how widespread it is, and we don’t even know about it. We decided that we had to do something. After a lot of research and prayer, we decided to start Taylor Made Chocolate to bring job training to individuals freed from human trafficking in the U.S. This would open many doors for good paying jobs after they left our program so individuals could start over. We opened our doors in November 2017. We also discovered the chocolate industry had a history of slavery back to the beginning. So, we started a journey to be sure to source our cocoa beans from fair trade sources and to start our own partnerships in Haiti to improve a community and pay fair prices to the farmers of that community. As a new business, we have been pretty successful at not losing sight of our mission. We have been able to provide 1,000 hours of job training which is a year ahead of schedule. We have identified three to four business partners that fill different roles and have the same mission and goals in Haiti. And, we were able to provide a year of agriculture education to two individuals in Haiti. It looks like we are able to start conversations with two young men in the near future who would like to start the farming process, and we have identified the area for a coop. All of this work was scheduled to begin in 2020, but we are ahead of schedule. We are so excited to see what happens over the next year. We have some really great people to work with, and really great customers who love awesome chocolate all the while helping others live a better life. We are so grateful to our customers, because none of this could happen without your support. You are on the journey to change lives with us!
