The Future of Cocoa Farming Communities Starts With Access to Education

Hershey

By Tim McCoy, Director, Cocoa Partnerships

Key Takeaways:

• Supporting children’s education has been a central part of Hershey’s mission since our founding more than 130 years ago. Today, we’re continuing this work by helping expand the education system in cocoa-farming communities in West Africa.
• We’ve teamed up with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and are funding the construction of 12 new schools, including a new school in Ozékro, a small village of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire’s western cocoa-growing region.
• In addition to school construction, we are working to train teachers, establish remedial education programs and improve literacy and numeracy for 5 million primary school children through the Child Learning and Education Facility (CLEF).

Growing up in rural Appalachia, I knew that education was key to a brighter future. The importance of education is deeply engrained in my family going back to my great-great grandfather, who taught primary school both before and after his service in the U.S. Army during the Civil War and my grandfather, who taught vocational agriculture to American GIs after their service during World War II. This makes me especially proud to work for The Hershey Company, where supporting children has been part of the company’s DNA since our founding more than 130 years ago. We want all children to have bright futures, and that extends to the communities in our cocoa supply chain.

Milton Hershey may have given us America’s most iconic chocolate bar, but one of our founder’s most compelling contributions is Milton Hershey School (MHS). Founded by Milton and his wife Catherine, they built the school with the intention of providing youth with a productive and fulfilling life. Prior to his death, Milton Hershey left the entirety of his fortune with the school to ensure its continued success.

We’ve continued to carry on this commitment to education today. In addition to our work with youth in the U.S., we’re investing in widescale educational infrastructure in West Africa, where much of the world’s cocoa is grown, to support children who lack sufficient access to quality education. Our hope is that having greater school access can help set generations of children on a path to fulfilling and productive lives.

We engage with leading children’s rights experts to enhance our work and apply what we’ve learned from years of investing in cocoa-farming communities to achieve greater impact. We’re active partners with the Child Learning and Education Facility. (CLEF), a public-private coalition to improve access to quality education for children in cocoa-producing areas of Côte d’Ivoire. In CLEF, we are partnering with the Jacobs Foundation, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Education and Literacy, and 14 other chocolate producers and cocoa suppliers to build 2,500 new classrooms, train teachers, establish remedial education programs and improve literacy and numeracy for 5 million primary school children.

Last year, Hershey signed an agreement with Côte d’Ivoire’s National Oversight Committee for Actions to Fight Child Labor, Trafficking and Exploitation (CNS) and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) to fund construction of 12 primary schools (72 classrooms) in cocoa-producing communities that currently lack school infrastructure. In 2023, we built three new schools in Côte d’Ivoire and nine more will be completed by the end of 2025.

Many rural cocoa-growing communities lack the financial resources to develop a school system that can serve all the children in the area. Lack of educational infrastructure is often caused by factors like distance between households and challenges in recruiting and housing teachers. In Ozékro, a cocoa-growing community located in western Côte d’Ivoire, the new public primary school is already allowing families to benefit from the project. In a community of fewer than 1,000 people, nearly 200 households have been impacted by having a new school within traveling distance, removing a barrier to education for many. Watch the video above to hear from community members how the new school has made a difference for their families.

Our efforts are aimed toward helping children receive a quality education to achieve their full potential and that high-quality school infrastructure is key to creating a safe and protective environment where children can learn. Research also shows that communities with better access to education have fewer children working to support their families’ farms, a key issue in many cocoa-growing regions.

We also know education is about more than just classrooms. Our projects extend to the construction of canteens, upgraded water wells, and latrines. Central to any education system are devoted teachers, so we’re working with our partners to train educators and, where appropriate, build teacher lodgings. We’re providing school supplies in line with the government’s national child labor action plans, and helping children obtain birth certificates that are necessary to enroll in school.

Aligned with the objectives of Côte d'Ivoire's National Strategy for Sustainable Cocoa and Hershey's Income Accelerator program, these investments reflect a shared commitment to ensuring a better and more sustainable cocoa supply chain.

Hershey has an important role to play in a sustainable supply chain and the livelihoods of cocoa farming families. It takes an environment of supportive practices and broad cooperation. No single company can do this alone, so we remain committed to collaborating to tackle the complex issues facing the industry. By working with our partners to eliminate barriers to school attendance, we are making strides to set cocoa-growing communities up for success for generations to come.