The family-run, San Francisco company can trace its history back 150 years and says it wants to “pay forward the kindness, camaraderie and empathy it has experienced in the past” and support hospitality industry professionals, local communities, and cocoa farmers who are struggling in the wake of the current coronavirus crisis.
As well as a founding member of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), Guittard is also a member of the International Cocoa Initiative. Both organizations aim to improve cocoa farm practices around the world through education, training, and development for cocoa farmers.
The Make it Sweet program includes a donation component, Guittard has donated chocolate bars to frontline workers at local hospitals and to meal programs (including SF General Hospital, UCSF, Stanford, UCSD, Highland Hospital, Drip Kit, and Fiorella's 'Pay It Forward Tuesdays'), committed a portion of the sales of their baking kit to support No Kid Hungry, and joined forces with the WCF to provide relief to cocoa farmers in countries hit heavily by the virus.
A spokesperson for Guittard said the company has rolled out a “generous workplace giving program, and will be matching every dollar donated by employees to organizations such as No Kid Hungry, the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, SF Marin Food Bank, SF New Deal, and Frontline Foods”.
