What is Project Hope and Fairness?

Project Hope and Fairness is a non-profit dedicated to helping African cocoa farmers earn their way out of poverty by increasing their share of profits from the cocoa value chain. See video

Education and Training

Helping African cocoa farmers and villagers increase their share of profits starts with education and support.

Best Practices: Growing, fermenting, and drying methods create quality beans, needed to have the best cocoa products.
Training chocolatiers: An entrepreneurial spirit, attention to detail, and a talented palate are traits of a person who can transform cocoa beans into delicious chocolate products.
Cooperatives: Currently, our work is centered in the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), working with village cooperatives to purchase the best beans.
The Village Cocoa Production and Training Center is the latest project. This Center has the equipment and personnel to produce chocolate, cocoa powder, and cocoa butter.
- Aspiring chocolatiers can gain hands-on training in the steps of making chocolate and cocoa products.
- The Training Center has focused on agro-forestry best practices to ensure the cocoa farmers are using the most productive methods.
- Profits from sales filter back to serve key community needs.

updated working together for success.png

PH&F works to help the cocoa growing villages and cooperatives, as well as chocolate entrepreneurs, pursue and succeed in opportunities meaningful to them and their well-being through direct charitable assistance (grants, equipment, and technical assistance). PH&F has formed Chocolat des Villages, an Ivorian company, to accomplish these results in accord with Ivory Coast government regulations.

Mission

Helping African cocoa farmers boost incomes and improve their quality of life.

Vision

PH&F serves as a center of excellence for cocoa cooperative members to learn quality production techniques and business and marketing skills to boost their incomes and improve their lives.

Values

1) Respect for village cultures and capabilities

2) Integrity -- true to our word

3) Accountability -- accountable for the use of resources and the results achieved

4) Inclusivity -- encouraging opportunities for all

Inspiration and Timeline

The inspiration for Project Hope and Fairness started in 2003 when Tom Neuhaus taught a course with the goal of helping nutrition students learn about culinary cultures at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). Tom's research into the ethical sourcing of chocolate found that cacoa farmers of West Africa made very little money from their crop, villagers lived in abject poverty, and child labor was common.

2003 to 2012:

While traveling to Peru and visiting cacoa farmers Tom started thinking in terms of the cocoa and chocolate value chain.
Tom visited 15 villages every year in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. Each time he brought tools to improve safety and consistently took photos to use in lectures about these experiences.

2006: Founding of Project Hope and Fairness

PH&F formally recognized as a non-profit by the IRS. This allowed PH&F to raise money through donations.

2011: Transition to business and support of West African cacoa farming villages

Two village chiefs, Guinea Tape Francois of Pezoan and Justin Dédé of Depa suggested PH&F build a rice hulling center to spare women the hours required to decorticate rice by mortar and pestle.
The first big donation -- $10,000 was needed to fund this goal. Tom showed the movie, “Dark Side of Chocolate” at his home and Celia Zaentz, a local film producer attending the showing, gave PH&F the money to begin this first big project.
In addition to building the rice hulling center a small room for making chocolate was completed.

2012 - 2023: First Village chocolate production established in Depa (SOCOPLAN)

David Zigro established a cooperative and thanks to PH&F donors, he purchased the tools to make chocolate, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder.
SOCOPLAN became known for its quality chocolate and cocoa butter thanks to the contributions of JP Bolou and Jerôme Kouakou.
David showed off his bars at the Salon de Paris in 2022 and subsequently in Morocco.

2019: Second Village chocolate production established in Pezoan (SCAP)

Evariste Plegnon put Tom in touch with Adama Yamba (AKA Servando). PH&F built a two-room facility to house a rice hulling machine and a room for tempering and molding chocolate.
Servando quickly became an expert at making fudge-filled bars; he is a master at tempering and has since won awards for the quality of his products.

2023: Cocoa production training center established

PH&F provided equipment and facilities to manufacture chocolate from the beans of the five local cooperatives and to develop classes in cacoa-growing best practices using agroforestry techniques.

2023: Projet Espoir et Equité:

Tom opened a small retail store in Cordes-sur-Ciel, France in order to promote the brand Chocolat des Villages (CdV), aspiring to sell the Chocolat des Villages throughout the EU.
Tom also works on chocolate product testing and development for the brand.

2025: Refined village service model and hired in-country leader

Reviewed lessons learned from initial village-cooperative experiences
To build on the Chocolat des Village brand we transitioned from US directed management and production model to an Ivorian based model; hiring Ivory Coast based personnel to manage production, create new products, and market and sell products.
Tom retired as PH&F Founder/CEO and PH&F transitioned to an in-country leader, Alexis Anouan who has deep experience in cocoa coops and project management.

2026: Chocolat des Village formed to expand scale and scope

Following government requirements for an organization to purchase and process large volumes of cocoa beans, PH&F incorporated Chocolat des Villages (Village Chocolate) in Côte d'Ivoire
The incorporation of Chocolat de Village dedicates the operation to help cocoa farmers and villages boost their incomes and improve quality of life.

Project Hope & Fairness, Inc., is a California public benefit corporation that is in a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS (EIN-20-3269307). We are a volunteer organization originally based in San Luis Obispo County, California.