http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/askinosie-chocolate-making-lasting-change-global-community_40946.mp3
An Ozarks chocolate company is doing more than just creating artisan chocolate – with the help of local college students, Askinosie Chocolate is reaching out to an African community with a plan to make a lasting difference. KSMU’s Shane Franklin has this story.
Shawn Askinosie, founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate, has taken a group of local high school students to Tenende, Tanzania. The trip is designed to help the students learn valuable lessons on building and strengthening relationships in a global community.
While in Tanzania, the students participate in community development projects at the Mwaya Secondary School, as well as gaining firsthand knowledge in international business. Askinosie Chocolate first made contact with Mwaya in a previous trip to the region in 2010, when they provided textbooks and drilled a well for the nearby village.
“Shawn often refers to that being one of his greatest moments, was being able to taste that water, that fresh water.”
That’s Bethany Parry, the “Person in Charge of Getting the Word Out,” at Askinosie.
These efforts were made possible through Chocolate University, an Askinosie program in cooperation with Drury University, which gains it funding from donations and tours of the chocolate factory on Commercial Street.
“Chocolate University is a project that Shawn started. Shawn’s entire thought process behind that is, he thinks small business can make a big difference in the world and in the community. Basically trying to expose kinds at a young age to a world outside their own, how there are people out there that are different than them, and that they can be a part of helping them have a better life, and also about social entrepreneurship, and how now matter what they’re passionate about, they can make a difference.”
On this trip, the students of Chocolate University continue their involvement in Tenende by working with the local Parent-Teachers Association to develop a self-sustaining lunch program for the children of Mwaya. They do this by marketing a Tanzanian product in which 100 percent of the profits go toward feeding the local children.
Mallory Roth is wholesale relations and educator at Askinosie Chocolate.
“Our customers are exposed to a brand new product, they’re excited about it, and they know the story behind it. The PTA once they get the profit and the food and they’re starting to feed the kids, they are the ones serving the kids as well. So they created the product, we sold it, our customers bought it, the money went back to the PTA and they’re serving it.”
In addition to the lunch program, Askinosie and the students of Chocolate University will be implementing a video-learning curriculum at Mwaya. Askinosie, with the help of sponsors, is donating laptops, pre-loaded with software, and projectors. They’re also setting up a generator for Mwaya to power the electronics, and providing funding for a new teacher to guide the students with the new technology.
Askinosie and the students will also be testing the local cocoa beans to ensure that their single origin beans, grown by Mama Kyeja and the UWATE farm group, are of the highest quality. Askinosie shares its profits with these farmers, and they will be discussing ways to continue to develop and sustain the first direct trade relationship in the region.
The overall goal of Chocolate University is to inspire young people about social entrepreneurship and a world beyond their own.
“Shawn worked very hard to select students that were good ambassadors too, that they would bring this back and share this, and that is wouldn’t just be a trip that they had but that others could learn and grow from it too. So they’re going to come back and the question will then be, what are you going to do now, to bring what you have learned into your community here in Springfield, or wherever you might go?”
For links to more information about Chocolate University and Askinosie’s Tanzania trip, just visit our website, KSMU.org.
For KSMU News, I’m Shane Franklin.
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