Sarah Gross, is a young entrepreneur who put her love for chocolate and rescue animals together with the creation of Rescue Chocolate. 100% of the profits from every chocolate bar sold go toward animal rescue organizations—and on top of that, they have fun branding too, including bright packaging and flavours like Peanut Butter Pit Bull and Pick Me! Pepper.
With the tagline, “The sweetest way to save a life,” Rescue Chocolate makes it obvious that their brand is more than a product—it has a purpose. That purpose? Helping animal rescue organizations in the United States.
100% of the net profits from the Rescue Chocolate bars go toward a beneficiary organization, which changes every month (this months’ organization is RedRover). Purpose is heavily ingrained in each product, from the company description to the bright, colourful packaging with a friendly cat or a dog picture in the centre of each bar. The website also offers resources for people who want to help a rescue animals, and tips on what to do if they find one.
Rescue Chocolate, which is vegan, certified Kosher and handcrafted in Brooklyn, was founded by Sarah Gross in January 2010. She wanted to put her love of chocolate together with her passion for helping homeless animals, and the result was this creative line that includes aptly named flavours like Peanut Butter Pit Bull, Bow Wow Bon Bons, Pick Me! Pepper, Wild at Heart and Fakin’ Bacon!
It all started with a thumbnail image of a forlorn pitbull. Cropped ears, swollen nipples, her name was Mocha, and her photo had been posted online (Petfinder.com) by her foster mom as a desperate act to find her a permanent home before the clock ran down to zero.
Mocha’s eyes stuck with me. I flashed through that online posting once, twice, and then again. I kept going back to check on her, to see if by some miracle an angel had descended and adopted her. I had grown up sharing my house with dogs and volunteering at my local animal shelter, but I knew I couldn’t have a dog at the moment—I was never home, and I lived in the middle of the biggest concrete jungle in the world, New York City. Besides, the building in which I rented a room didn’t even allow pets.
Those beautiful mocha-brown eyes…. It took awhile to track down the email address of her foster mom. I set up an appointment just to meet Mocha near Central Park, with no strings attached. Dear Reader, you absolutely know what happened next.
At first touch, I felt an instant, profound connection. A bit later, we rode in a taxi together back to Brooklyn. And then, a few months later, she handed me a wallop of inspiration.
I was savoring the last bite of a dark chocolate bar before heading out for our morning walk (doesn’t everyone eat chocolate for breakfast?!). Powered up by the darkest of dark chocolate, I hit the sidewalk with my gorgeous best friend.
Suddenly it occurred to me: why not put together my two loves? How about developing a scrumptious new dark chocolate line, selling it, and donating the profits to animals in need?
I already worked part-time at a raw chocolate company in Queens, where I had developed a best-selling flavor. I knew what tasted good. And God knew there was certainly a need to raise awareness about the epidemic of homeless pets in America. The idea for Rescue Chocolate was almost fully formed before Mocha and I returned from our walk that morning in December 2009.
Now, working with executive chef Jean Francois Bonnet at the Tumbador chocolate factory, it is a dream to create new flavors for my line of dark chocolate products, naming them, selling them, and choosing the animal rescue charities to support each month. Rescue Chocolate is carried by a number of retail outlets in New York, San Diego, Chicago, and elsewhere, and it is also sold online.
People give it a try and become addicted. Maybe it has something to do with the picture of the pooch on the wrapper of every Rescue Chocolate bar—that one with the mocha-brown eyes.
www.rescuechocolate.com
www.facebook.com/rescuechocolate
A pit bull named Lilly risked her life to pull her unconscious owner from the path of an oncoming freight train last week. The loyal dog suffered serious injuries but saved her owner, 
