Last week in a digital FAIRground event to announce their 8th Annual FAIR Report, Tony's Chocoloney had an array of international guests that included Pharrell Williams.
Pharrell Williams and Tony's Chonoloney will be making slave free chocolate together
The talk with Pharrell was to announce a long-term partnership between the chocolate brand and the music icon and cultural changemaker.
Tony’s partnership with Pharrell Williams has been founded on a shared vision of ending systemic inequality and mutually supporting one another’s missions: for Tony’s, eliminating illegal child labour and modern slavery from the cocoa supply chain; for Williams, closing the opportunity and wealth gap in the US.
In 2021 Tony's Chocoloney will support Pharrell Williams' Black Ambition program: a non-profit initiative to level the playing field and foster innovation in underrepresented entrepreneurs in the US.
A Black Ambition bar, will be made using Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles for ethical, slave-free chocolate, and the proceeds will go towards funding the Black Ambition program.
As Tony’s Head of Marketing Thecla Shaeffer, explains, “Impact should be harnessed using the connections we already have. It’s about tackling the things we can change with the resources we have now.
The Black Ambition bar encapsulates Tony’s belief that the root causes of inequality in the US and in West Africa stem from colonial and post-colonial power structures.
Creating fair opportunities in people’s everyday lives is one huge way to make systemic change. Pharrell and all of us at Tony’s understand that.”
Tony's Chocoloney want to make the entire chocolate industry slave free
Other speakers at Tony's FAIR event included ‘doughnut economist’ Kate Raworth, Utopia for Realists author Rutger Bregman, founder of Chobani and the Tent Project for Refugees Hamdi Ulukaya, spoken-word artist and activist Akwasi, and actor and United Nations Agricultural Development Goodwill Ambassador Idris Elba.
Ghanaian filmmaker David Boanuh also teased his new documentary-film collaboration with Tony’s Chocolonely, Golden Seeds, where cocoa farmers reclaim their narrative to bring a Ghanaian perspective to the world.
Having been around since 2005, when it was created to put social impact before profit — going beyond certifications to make chocolate 100% slave-free - the last couple of years have seen Tony's Chocoloney break through internationally, and gather an international crew of fans and collaborators.
What do you think? Are you a Tony's Chocoloney fan? Let us know in the comments below.
