Today we are featuring a company that we absolutely LOVE, Bellafina Chocolates!! We love their yummy chocolates (there is no doubt that Amanda adores chocolate, right?), the heart behind their business, and the amazing owner, Brenda!! What they do for children around the world is amazing and heartwarming!! We had to tell you more about them and brides-to-be you can even help out as well!! They even offer services for your wedding day!! They are awesome and we are so proud to be able to partner with them through our business!

Tell us a little bit about your business!   

Bellafina Chocolates is a gourmet chocolate company that donates 100% of its profits to children’s charities. We are staffed entirely by volunteers plus the paid positions we’ve created for women who are coming out of
addiction, incarceration, or an abusive relationship. We want to help women learn and grow new skills they might not have known they had or had pushed aside for whatever reason. Our amazing volunteers have many
different skills and life experiences to serve as mentors to these ladies to help them grow and achieve their dreams. We donate all of our profits every day to children’s charities such as CASA, Hope House, over 50
orphanages around the world, and many more. Our goal is to one day be able to write million dollar checks to charities helping some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

How did you get started?

Bellafina Chocolates was started in my kitchen on weekends and evenings. I was a Vice President at a Fortune 500 company and did this as a hobby and as means to give back in a way more tangible than writing a check. I
had been making chocolate truffles for years as gifts for friends and family and had always had a passion for helping children whose young lives were threatened by disease, poverty, abuse, or neglect. In the beginning,
my mom and I made our truffles and sold them at local farmers markets and downtown concerts. We probably only made a couple of thousand dollars for children’s charities that first year. Then about 2 years into it, the company I worked for had a restructuring and I lost my job. I told my husband Scott that I wanted to run Bellafina Chocolates as a full-time volunteer and invest part of my severance package in full-scale equipment for the business. He agreed! Eventually we found our perfect spot in downtown Kingsport and have been here for about 5 years. We are blessed with incredible support from the community and our little chocolate adventure continues to grow each year!

How many years have you been in business?

9 years and counting!

What is the inspiration for the name of your business?

Bellafina is a combination of the Italian words for “beautiful” and “fine”. I wanted to honor my Italian heritage and particularly my Grandma Rose, who had a difficult life but was such a strong woman, a great mother to her children, and one of the most caring and generous people I have ever known. Not speaking a word of Italian, my family and I sat down one weekend with a Google language translator and created a name that reflected the beauty, elegance and quality of the chocolates the company would make (and wasn’t already used by lots of other companies). Bellafina Chocolates was born and the rest is history!

Who does your business help and how?

We start by giving 100% of our profit to children’s charities and focus these contributions on the most threatened and vulnerable children we can find. We also partner with great non-profits to conduct fundraisers that can help them create a stable, recurring funding source while helping us spread the word across the country about our chocolates and our mission. The paid positions we’ve created help single mothers and their children, many of whom have survived a family environment of drug and alcohol addiction, periodic incarceration, and domestic violence and abuse. By helping these women rebuild a healthy, successful life we like to think we are also helping give her children the best chance of success and helping to break a cycle that can sometimes span generations.

What do you love most about what you do?

Hands down, it’s the opportunity to see how God works through us to help the children that he loves so much. And He does this in such tangible ways every day! Often, He places just the right person in our path at just the right time. Like the man and his son-in-law who said “How can I help you?” just as our plumbing was on its last legs. Two months later we had fully renovated bathrooms that are also ADA compliant. Or the college student volunteer who worked beside one of our staff members at precisely the time she needed God to speak to her about a personal struggle. That afternoon the student made a choice to invite Jesus Christ into her heart and devote her life to His service. And sometimes I get to see a glimpse of the difference this place makes in people’s lives and it just feels like a hug from God. Like the thank-you note, we got in the mail with a photo of two children from Kuda Vana orphanage in Zimbabwe holding a chalkboard that said: “Thank you Bellafina Chocolates!” Or reading a heartfelt testimony from one of our staff members describing how this job is changing her life or overhearing one lady coaching another who was earlier on her recovery journey and struggling. Although I loved my job in my previous career, it doesn’t compare to the joy and fulfillment that this work gives me!

What are some of your goals and dreams for 2019?

Our goal is to introduce our products to individuals and companies outside our region so we can grow our business to help more threatened children and hire more struggling women. You can help! We need to spread the word about our chocolates and our mission beyond the Tri-Cities area, especially about the gifts we can do for weddings and corporate gifts. Will you help us by reaching out to your friends, family, and business associates? Thank you!!
 Weddings – We make customized table favors, out of town guest gifts, and attendant gifts. We can put an engagement photo and your names and wedding date on any of our packaging for a truly memorable day!
 Corporate gifts – Many companies use our chocolates to say “thank you” to important clients, new customers, and staff. We can put a full-color logo on our packaging and even on the truffles themselves for extra impact. We ship across the U.S.

 
How do people contact you? Leave contact information. (social media, phone, email, website, etc.)

https://www.facebook.com/bellafina.chocolates/
https://instagram.com/bellafinachocolates/
https://twitter.com/bellafinachoc
We can be contacted by phone at (423)292-2271
Email at admin@bellafinachocolates.com or marketing.bellafina@gmail.com
You can find us online at www.bellafinachocolates.com
Or you can come by the shop at 123 Cherokee St. Kingsport TN