Hope’s Caramels brings soft, artisan caramels to discerning palettes. This is not the caramel of your youth that will pull on your teeth, but rather the perfect balance of soft, sweet, and salty.
Hope started making these caramels for friends as a means to contribute to the household income, and now, with Brady by her side, is making it the only source of family income. We have a vision to create a business that not only supports our family but, most importantly, provides a space for human trafficking victims to find stability and growth. (More about The Sweet Life campaign at the end).
What started off as making caramels out of her home kitchen is now bursting at the seams. Hope needs more space.
We are creating the perfect space to create the perfect caramel. This production area will have all the stoves, sinks, and wrapping spaces needed to create our artwork: the caramel. We will use the pots to forge in flavors distinguishing our caramel from the rest. We’ll chop up coconuts, squeeze blood from oranges, pour the dark rum, and infuse vanilla beans into potato vodka (because purchased vanilla extract is just not our style). Blending flavors and ingredients, creating masterpieces for you, is our pleasure.
This space will be our studio where we create those masterpieces for your enjoyment and develop new products like the much anticipated caramel sauce, creme caramels, and two layer caramels (think blood orange and salted chocolate melded together).
The specifics: We will hire a contractor for the demolition of our basement and the construction of a commercial kitchen. We will purchase appliances (stove, sinks, freezers, refrigerators, grease trap, and hot water heater) and equipment (tables, shelving, and cutting devices).
Finding the right space–one that works with our style and our product–has been impossible. We looked into rent for other spaces and found either the spaces lacking and not conducive to creating our caramels or too expensive and more space and equipment than needed. Cooperative kitchens expose our product to unwanted smells and contaminants.
Put simply: We need to build!
We hope to complete the project by March 1, 2020.
The total project should cost $67,000. We are seeking $18k to underwrite the purchase of the equipment for the space. The remaining costs will come from other financing.
At Hope’s Caramels, we want to bring the sweet life to everyone. That is more than just a tagline for a candy company. For years we felt moved by the plight of victims of human trafficking. Last year, Brady even took a trip to work in Cambodia for a week. While there he taught cooking to girls who had been victims, victims needing work skills. Upon returning, Hope had also been feeling like there was a place in Hope’s Caramels to affect change in the lives of victims.
For now, we donate 10% of our revenues to this issue. We envision a day, though, when domestic victims can find stability by learning work skills and earning an income from Hope’s Caramels. A sweet life…one of hope for a better future and the skills to get there.
We are seeking $18k but will need 4x that to fully fund the construction. It is our hope, of course, that you will fully fund the entire project and not only the appliances which we are seeking now. We are seeking funding from other sources, as well. We will not be stopped and will secure funding however me must to construct this space. Once funding and a contractor is secured there is, of course, the red tape of County building inspectors and state health inspectors which may delay our March 2020 completion date. We will fulfill the rewards out of our current home kitchen, if we must.