Entry by: Clementine Leahy, World Cocoa Foundation

This past Saturday, along with Charlie Feezel, Holly Houston and Meg Young from the World Cocoa Foundation, I had the chance to participate in The Cake Bar's 3rd Annual Valentine's Party, a fundraiser event organized by Ms. Carla Durham, owner of the Cake Bar and benefiting the World Cocoa Foundation’s ECHOES program.

Taking place the day before Valentine's Day, always a favorite moment to enjoy chocolate, the event was set at the beautiful Studio Gallery where Carla's carefully elaborated and rich chocolate cakes blended graciously with the surrounding pieces of art.

In addition to Carla's great cakes and sweets, dessert wine and cheeses were also served.

While guests were indulging and sampling these delicious products, gifts donated by various sponsors were auctioned at the rear of the gallery, including a set of three chocolate boxes graciously donated by our member company Lake Champlain Chocolates.

Before the closing of the silent auction, Charlie Feezel, the Program Director for ECHOES gave a description of the program and emphasized the importance of education amongst the cocoa-growing community in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The proceeds of the auction and a portion of the ticket price will be donated to the World Cocoa Foundation for support of the ECHOES program. Specifically, the funds will go towards the purchase of tool kits for young adults graduating from a agricultural training program.

We thank Carla for the organization of the event and for giving the World Cocoa Foundation the opportunity to speak about our work supporting education for cocoa-growing communities.