Nick CamachoCal Poly students weekly cook up the sweet stuff to supply San Luis Obispo with Cal Poly Chocolates as part of a student enterprise project. Nutrition seniors Amy Foley and Sarah Heller have worked with the food science and nutrition department for two years, melting, scooping and cutting their way to becoming the Cal Poly student chocolate managers.
Through the student enterprise project, the university supplies the money and facilities while students provide labor in production, packaging and marketing to make Cal Poly Chocolates possible. The project was established in 2000 and is under the supervision of faculty adviser and food science and nutrition professor Tom Neuhaus.
Foley and Heller currently work with seven other students to produce all of the chocolate the school sells, which has come to gross $40,000 annually. The money is used to pay the student workers and reinvest in the chocolate program.
“I think a lot of people may not know that all of our chocolate is completely handmade by the students. Everything is hand-dipped, cut and packaged,” Heller said.
Foley and Heller both started at Cal Poly Chocolates during the holiday rush in 2005. Foley began as a volunteer for the short season and got her rewards in free chocolate.
Most students get their start in Cal Poly Chocolates through the classes FSN 201, chocolate production and packaging, or FSN 401, advanced enterprise project and then continue to stay involved in the project.
“A great thing about this program is people stick around, there is not a high turnover rate. Anyone who has been involved in Cal Poly Chocolates usually sticks with it for the rest of their time here,” Foley said.
The chocolate is sold in various locations around the Central Coast, at campus market and by special order. Cal Poly Chocolates was responsible for providing the chocolate vaginas sold at “The Vagina Monologues” performances on campus last month.
Every Friday Foley and Heller spend eight hours in the Food Processing building making and packaging the products. From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., their time is spent trying to get the chocolate to the right temperature to work with.
The chocolate makers then spend the entire day making the different pieces needed to fulfill orders for the next week. They sell as many as 300 pieces a week; a piece can range from a chocolate bar to an entire box of assorted chocolates.
Cal Poly Chocolates sells a variety of different kinds of chocolate from four different types of bars, peanut butter cups and cashew caramels.
The group makes different amounts of chocolate each week based on the amount of orders received. Campus Market is the main seller of the chocolates and they become more popular around the holidays and when students are cashing in their Plu$ Dollars at the end of each quarter.
Another component to the flourishing student enterprise project came in March 2005 when they became recognized as a Fair Trade product by national organization TransFairUSA. This means that all of the beans used to make any of the chocolates – dark, white or milk – are manufactured from Fair Trade-certified cocoa beans.
All of the Fair Trade cocoa is derived from specifically certified Fair Trade farms usually in Central and South America, the Caribbean and West Africa.
After graduation, Heller plans on pursuing a career within cooking and nutrition and Foley plans on going into culinary management.