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Risa Pesavento (left) and Rachel Foley (right) wrap the chocolate bars.
Ten percent of the company's profits go towards charity.
girls in Africa, an orphanage in Haiti. Instead of donating the money to a charity, Sara wanted to buy presents for needy children this Christmas.
Without a doubt, the unsung heroes of this operation are the parents. On Saturday mornings when the girls sell chocolate at the farmer's market, the parents are there and on the days when the girls take over the Davis Bread and Desserts bakery at 6a.m., the parents are there. They do the obvious, like drive their daughters to and from company gatherings, buy bagels for the gang and quite impressively deal with seven girls who are all hopped up on chocolate. The girls get all of the recognition for making the chocolate, and rightfully so, but if not for the parents, this entire operation would be halted.
These seven girls have something few others do, each other. That Saturday morning was an eye-opening experience for me. The girls were slaving away making chocolate, and all of them were smiling the entire time. They have a chemistry that takes years to develop in the real world. We know that 10 percent of profits go to charity, so I asked the girls what they spend their small fortune on. I expected answers like, "a new bike, I'm saving it for college, I gave it to my sick grandmother who lives in Alabama," you know, something little-kid-like but still sophisticated enough for this extraordinary group of girls. The actual answer only brought more surprise. The remaining 90 percent of the profits after the charitable donations are put back into the company. Renting space, ingredients, machine construction, the girls make no profit. I asked them why they run the company, why slave away making chocolate when you get nothing out of it. The answer was as innocent as it was mature, "because it's fun."
Without a doubt, the unsung heroes of this operation are the parents. On Saturday mornings when the girls sell chocolate at the farmer's market, the parents are there and on the days when the girls take over the Davis Bread and Desserts bakery at 6a.m., the parents are there. They do the obvious, like drive their daughters to and from company gatherings, buy bagels for the gang and quite impressively deal with seven girls who are all hopped up on chocolate. The girls get all of the recognition for making the chocolate, and rightfully so, but if not for the parents, this entire operation would be halted.
These seven girls have something few others do, each other. That Saturday morning was an eye-opening experience for me. The girls were slaving away making chocolate, and all of them were smiling the entire time. They have a chemistry that takes years to develop in the real world. We know that 10 percent of profits go to charity, so I asked the girls what they spend their small fortune on. I expected answers like, "a new bike, I'm saving it for college, I gave it to my sick grandmother who lives in Alabama," you know, something little-kid-like but still sophisticated enough for this extraordinary group of girls. The actual answer only brought more surprise. The remaining 90 percent of the profits after the charitable donations are put back into the company. Renting space, ingredients, machine construction, the girls make no profit. I asked them why they run the company, why slave away making chocolate when you get nothing out of it. The answer was as innocent as it was mature, "because it's fun."