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CommentsCocoa 101
Askinosie Chocolate treats Boyd Elementary students to chocolate, ice cream and a new view of the world by incorporating the ins and outs of the business into the kids’ curriculum.
A group of Boyd Elementary students have tasted cocoa beans from South America, learned how to run a profitable business, named an Andy’s Frozen Custard concrete and gained friends halfway around the world, all thanks to Askinosie Chocolate.
The story began more than two years ago, when Shawn Askinosie decided to open his fledgling chocolate factory on Commercial Street in Springfield. “I chose to be on Commercial on purpose,” Askinosie says. “It was my first choice, not my last.” Askinosie says he admired the character and history of the north-Springfield neighborhood, along with the many social services in the area.
As he visited with the organizers of the Missouri Hotel, which houses homeless individuals, he learned that more than 80 children spend the night there every night. “I’m reminded often how many kids are living homeless only a few yards away,” Askinosie says.
Many of those homeless children attend Boyd Elementary, located only a few blocks from Commercial Street. Askinosie started putting together the puzzle of how to help with the needs of the neighborhood.
Askinosie has offered tours at his factory since its inception, and he wanted to use that revenue to help the kids at Boyd.
Enter Chocolate University.
Askinosie teamed up with Sharon Price, an education instructor at Drury University, who created a curriculum that uses the chocolate-making world to add to the students’ usual studies.
“Our goal was to not make additional work for the teachers,” Askinosie says. “We just wanted to incorporate things we do here into the curriculum.”
During a unit on geography, Askinosie comes into the classrooms to talk about the areas of the world where he sources his cocoa beans. During a science unit, the students visit the factory to learn scientific principles used every day in chocolate making. “We just provide a fun place to learn,” Askinosie says. “There’s a fair amount of time they spend getting their hands in chocolate, which they love.”
The students also named a new-in-2008 Andy’s Frozen Custard treat made with Askinosie Chocolate, the Askinosie Woo-Hoo.
The kids’ experience with chocolate extends beyond the classroom and out into the world at large. During a recent sourcing trip to the Philippines, Askinosie met students at a school there and established a pen-pal program. “I write letters to my pen-pals asking them about their country and telling them about mine,” says third-grader Joshua Conaway. “Mr. Askinosie showed us pictures of their houses that were just two boards together.”
The pen-pal program has inspired empathy in the students, says Boyd Elementary principal James Grandon. “They see the disparity in the conditions of the schools,” he says. “They feel the power and responsibility to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.”
