Partnerships

We are intentional in all that we do, accountable for our impact, as we create chocolate with a worldview.

Through our experiences in bringing to the world the highest quality and craftsmanship in artisanal chocolate, Vosges Haut-Chocolat has been privileged to work with extraordinary innovators in our own and in other industries.

We feel a strong sense of solidarity with those in our supply chain and with our partners. Through these relationships, we apply joint resources to challenges in which we all have a stake. Vosges Haut-Chocolat has developed deep and significant relationships with the impressive organizations after conducting substantial due diligence.

Peace will never become a reality if all voices are not heard. That’s why we support select partner organizations that offer strength, freedom and diversity of voice to women and children. These organizations, among many other benefits, offer women and children access to education, art and culture.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat is proud to contribute to these partners through both in-kind and ongoing campaigns throughout the year. Please join us in supporting these worthy causes.

OUR RECIPIENT PARTNERS
- V-Day
- L’Ecole de Choix
- Little Kids Rock

OTHER INSPIRING PARTNERS AND PROJECTS
- Yoga + Chocolate
- The Root to Bar Project

OUR RECIPIENT PARTNERS

V-Day:
Vosges Haut-Chocolat is honored to support V-Day’s global movement to stop violence against women and girls, and hopes that its support will help to make a reality V-Day’s dream of a world where women thrive rather than merely survive.

V-Day is a global activist movement shattering taboos, raising millions and transforming communities to end violence against women and girls. Annually, activists stage thousands of benefit productions of Founder/playwright Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues and other works. Working at the intersection of art, social action, and politics, V-Day empowers grassroots activists to become leaders, turning pain to power.

To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $70 million, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 11,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Egypt, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Pakistan, and South Dakota. V-Day was named one of Worth magazine's "100 Best Charities" in 2001 and Marie Claire’s “Top Ten Charities” in 2006. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

For more information on V-day, to join its mailing list, to learn about events, or to get involved, please click here.

L’Ecole de Choix:
L’Ecole de Choix / The School of Choice (Haiti): Vosges believes strongly in the power of education to offer women and girls a voice in their own lives. L’Ecole de Choix (The “School of Choice,” in Mirebalais, Haiti) offers access to a quality education for children living in some of the most extreme conditions of poverty in the world, many of whom come from female-led families. Choix is distinct among Haiti’s rural school restoration or construction projects in that, while approximately 4,000 schools are being restored, many are being returned to this status quo, unfortunately unable to access electricity, which therefore limits access to technology, offering a small selection of materials and textbooks, often without snacks or meals, and with unqualified teachers.

To the contrary, Choix represents a “Positive Disruption” to this status quo, pushing the boundaries of convention. It seeks to develop committed, effective, educated and professional leaders for Haiti’s next generation. Choix admits many children who may never before have held a pencil and offers them a quality program with highly prepared teachers, a technology lab, the ability to learn three languages, and much more. L’Ecole de Choix offers this opportunity to bring Haiti to the rest of the world and the rest of the world to Haiti.

Please take a look at L’Ecole de Choix’s website, photos and exciting direction and join Vosges-Haut Chocolat in giving these children a voice, a choice and the opportunity to make an impact. Check back here soon for an update on our plans for supplier sourcing from Haiti!

Little Kids Rock:
Little Kids Rock believes that music matters when it comes to making sure that every child receives a first-rate education. Creativity is central to our lives and work at Vosges-Haut Chocolat, and Little Kids Rock knows that learning to play a musical instrument can inspire the creativity and confidence that are critical to a child’s success in school and beyond.

LKR is dedicated to restoring and revitalizing music education in U.S. public schools by providing free musical instruments and music instruction to underserved schools across the country.

To honor the work of Little Kids Rock, Vosges Haut-Chocolat introduced its Groove Collection, which celebrates the influence of African-Americans on America’s most notable musical music dating back from field songs to today’s hip hop. Proceeds from this music-chocolate-sensory experience are donated to Little Kids Rock.

For more information on the Groove Collection, which transports you on a multi-sensory experience through African American history integrating 12 chocolate truffles, 12 musical genres, and one CD, click here. Feel the chocolate + music experience.

Millions of children in the US receive no music education. Let’s bring music to their ears and joy to their hearts through Little Kids Rock.

Back To Top

OTHER INSPIRING PARTNERS AND PROJECTS

Yoga + Chocolate:
Vosges Haut-Chocolat founder Katrina Markoff teamed with her college friend, David Romanelli, in 2003 to create the Yoga + Chocolate Experience. Each evolution (one might be a 90-minute deep stretch yoga class, set to great music - from Radiohead to Reba) focuses on the simple pleasures that can impregnate an otherwise mundane moment with a lifelong memory. So many of us are overwhelmed by the vast amount of information coming at us each day, Dave suggests that we take a few hours to keep it simple. As a wise one said, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

The Yoga + Chocolate experience highlights an exotic Vosges chocolate truffle as a secret gateway to the richer life available in the present moment. It’s not just chocolate; Dave shows you how great music, yoga, wine, or any everyday passion can become an accessible gateway to the present moment.

About David: Since 2004, Yahoo! Wellness Expert David Romanelli has been traveling the world sharing his Yoga for Foodies, Yoga + Chocolate, and Yoga + Wine experiences. The purists have been known to challenge his blending of ancient tradition with modern tastes, sounds, and passions. But those who prefer their yoga coated in chocolate, seasoned with humor, and lavished with Marley have enjoyed his workshops and debut book, Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' the Moment: Getting to Ecstasy through Wine, Chocolate, and Your Ipod Playlist. Dave was featured in the March 2011 issue of Food + Wine Magazine. His work has also been in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Oprah Magazine; and his book reached #1 on the Amazon Self-Help Bestseller List. David was co-founder of At One Yoga in Scottsdale, AZ.

For more information on this inspiring and innovative partnership between yoga + chocolate, and to learn the story of how Dave and Katrina really met (and what food item he showed her to prompt her to reply, “disgusting!” click here.)

The Root to Bar Project:
In the southern part of Belize lies 100,000 acres ranging from the rainforest to the sea, with 3,000 acres dedicated to cacao. Vosges Haut-Chocolat is planting the virgin land with cacao in a project we call the Root to Bar quest. 300 acres have been planted thus far and every day more are going in. We have had agronomists helping to analyze the current varietal stock and soil conditions in order to help us to determine how we can plant exclusively organic Belizian criollo and trinatario varietals.

Over 32,500 seedlings have been planted in the nursery already, with the majority of the farm being criollo. The impact of this farm of origin project is to celebrate the production of the finest chocolate, coffee, vanilla and spirits that can be made at the source. There is a luxury eco-lodge with an agro-tourism educational center examining the creation of these artisanal crops (chocolate, coffee, vanilla and distilled spirits).

This year, Vosges anticipates its first small crop of about 1,000 pounds which will be a great starting point in evaluating the finished chocolate profiles that we can achieve. As the acreage continues to be planted, these new cacao plants will begin to yield cacao approximately 5 years from planting. We will be doing cocoa and chocolate processing in both Belize and Chicago, and hope to expand our sourcing in other countries as well.

We at Vosges look forward to sharing updates with you frequently on the Root to Bar and other similar projects, and eventually to inviting you down to share a taste of this chocolate that will be grown, roasted and created in Belize by Vosges!

Back To Top