Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 12: Transforming Sweet Passions into Purpose: Jes Williams' Mission with Bellafina Chocolates
What makes Jess Williams with Bellafina Chocolates a good neighbor?
What would you do if your passion could change the world? Join us on this week's Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Jes Williams from Bellafina Chocolates, a nonprofit that transforms the art of chocolate-making into a force for good. Founded by Brenda Barnicki, a former VP of technology, Bellafina Chocolates channels 100% of its profits into children's charities while providing employment and mentorship opportunities to women overcoming barriers. From luscious truffles to custom trail mixes supporting local projects, Jes shares how every piece of chocolate serves a greater purpose.
Discover the magic behind Bellafina Chocolates' hands-on production process and their innovative fundraising endeavors. Jes takes us through the journey of creating personalized chocolate gifts, complete with custom packaging and imprinted logos or photos, making each treat truly unique. Whether you're a chocolate enthusiast or someone who loves supporting impactful initiatives, this episode promises to leave you inspired and maybe even a bit hungry for a sweet cause. Tune in for an uplifting conversation that blends passion, purpose, and delicious chocolate.
To learn more about Bellafina Chocolates go to:
Bellafina Chocolates
(423) 292-2271
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monning.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast, everybody, are you a fan of chocolate? Do you like to do good things in the community? Well, we may have an opportunity for you here one way or the other. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor, Jess Jess Williams, who is with Bella Fina Chocolates. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hi, thanks for having me Skip.
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good. I'm good, it's a good day.
Speaker 2:It is a good day. It's Thursday, it's almost Friday.
Speaker 3:That's right, it's getting there, that's right.
Speaker 2:So we're super excited to learn all about you and Bella Fina Chocolates. So could you just tell us a little bit about your company?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah. So Bella Fina Chocolates it is an interesting business model. It's got a little bit of a history to it. So we are a nonprofit chocolate shop that's based in downtown Kingsport a nonprofit chocolate shop that's based in downtown Kingsport.
Speaker 3:We were founded back in 2010 and our founder, brenda Barneke.
Speaker 3:She was a VP of technology over at Eastman and was having a few job shifts things go around and that was when she was like I feel like there is a greater purpose, there are some gifts and talents I could be using, and so she had been making truffles for fun and giving them away, and she was like what if I started to sell them and give 100% of the profits to children's organizations, children's charities?
Speaker 3:And so that's kind of the foundation of how we started and it continues to be the heart of what we're about, and so we make all of our chocolates on site. We specialize in chocolate truffles. We also make chocolate bars and chocolate covered treats like dried fruits, nuts, espresso beans, and we are predominantly volunteer based. That said, as we continue to grow as a company, our mission and our goal kind of evolved, and so Bella Fina Chocolate's mission is to empower women who are overcoming barriers to employment by employing them and providing mentorship. And then we also invest 100% of our profits back into organizations that are serving vulnerable children and their families. So, and we do it all by making delicious chocolate for you to enjoy and share. And yeah, that's us.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, now it's not in, it's just truffles, or it's truffles and different kinds of chocolate.
Speaker 3:We are most known for our truffles, since that's kind of what we started with. That said, we have started bringing in other products because everything's better with chocolate. So we do have chocolate bars that we've started making. We have chocolate covered nuts and dried fruits and espresso beans, and then even last year we came out with a trail mix that's got some of our chocolate covered items inside it and we use that as a specific fundraiser for our for Bays Mountain, our local well, we're, we're just neighbors. Everybody's going to know Bays Mountain is doing a playground, so we actually came up with a trail mix that could be a fundraiser for them to support the playground that they were building.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, do you guys do your own packaging too? We do, we do everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so well that's, we don't do everything. We're not a bean to bar. We do have a source that we get our chocolate from and then we kind of combine it with the cocoa butter that we need. But yeah, we do everything. All of the chocolates are done by hand. We have staff and volunteers who are creating the packaging. Another fun thing that I was going to say later but I'll say now is we are able to customize, which means we can create custom packaging. We can put companies logos, we can put pictures of family, really whatever you want on the boxes for the truffles, and we can actually put companies logos or wedding dates or photos on the truffles as well logos or wedding dates or photos on the truffles as well which is just a really fun way to just take it up a notch and allow people to kind of really personalize their gift of something's already delicious.
Speaker 2:Wow, I would imagine that could be pretty popular with. You know, a lot of companies do fundraising of their own or just company events or street fairs sort of thing.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, it's true, and it really helps us. Obviously, we're a nonprofit and we have a mission. We function as a business and so we really need our customers are a part of our mission, and so being able to have corporations that can use us for holiday gifts, client appreciation We've got a few of the local universities that have done a really there's been so wonderful about utilizing our chocolate as they're showing gratitude and appreciation and hospitality, as they're showing gratitude and appreciation and hospitality, and so we're able to create their custom truffles and packaging. And then it also shares our story and shares why we do what we do, and so it really is. It's so lovely.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm impressed. So. So how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I already kind of mentioned our founder, brenda Bonnigy, right, and so for me personally, I I had grown up in Kingsport and had been away for about 20 years. I moved back in 2020. My background actually is not business at all and I was not a chocolatier, but I had spent 12 plus years doing nonprofit leadership, organizing urban mission trips for groups that came into Nashville I was working out. Just before we moved, I was working at an Episcopal chapel, st Augustine's, and our priest, becca, had founded an organization called Thistle Farms which was about, basically, they were about love, heals and so caring for women and empowering them and just walking with, just loving them while they heal, and part of that model was providing employment, because that is such an important part of women healing and women being able to live fully. And so I had this background in nonprofit and so I had this background in nonprofit and so when I moved back in 2020, I was really unsure what I was going to do for a job. I wasn't sure what the nonprofit world looked like in Kingsport, where my gifts and talents were going to line up, and, yeah, I happened upon Brenda. We didn't know each other. I didn't know anything about Bella Fina Chocolates happened upon brenda, we didn't know each other. I didn't know anything about bella fina chocolates. Um, she was looking for at the time, I think she was looking for an operations manager, but she wasn't quite sure. What she was looking for is what we found out, and so we sat down to have a conversation and she was very much, um, feeling drawn to go do different work. Right, she'd been doing this for, feeling drawn to go do different work, right, she'd been doing this for a really long time, and so she was feeling drawn to go start this other social enterprise with her husband, this farm that they're building. But she really wanted Bella Fina to continue and the more we talked, it just felt like it was a good fit.
Speaker 3:We spent about a year of me just being here, part-time, learning it. Um, and while I was discerning, every time I showed up at Bella Fina, I got excited about what was happening here. Um, and you know we are, we are, uh, we are a faith based organization, and so you know I will say that, like, for me, it was very much. I felt like I could see how God was moving here and the ways, not just, not just the women that we employ. But like everybody was getting a little love and a little boost in, like who we are. When we get to show up and create good things, to do good things, it's just a win, and so that's really like. I was like, how you know, there's a huge learning curve for me. Didn't know business, didn't know chocolate, but I understand the heart and the why Bella Fina exists. And so Brenda was like I can teach you the rest, and so she was able to teach me. I took over officially in 2022. I took over as executive director. So that was a little wordy, I apologize.
Speaker 2:No, that's OK. That's OK. I asked the question, so let's change gears a little bit outside of chocolate. What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:OK, so for fun, I would like to say that I'm like super active, but really, if you, I love sitting outside. I could be walking outside, I could as long as it's outside, but it doesn't necessarily have to be hiking or anything. If I can get in the woods, that is brilliant, but if it is just in my backyard with my dog, like laying all over me, I'm thrilled. So, outside, or sitting at a coffee shop, journaling, if my brain will slow down enough for me to focus, the other things would be I have a son. He's in high school and he is super strong runner and, and so we're starting cross country right now, and so, whether it just getting to go and and watch him, or my husband is a cyclist and so going to some of his races, there's something fun about getting to watch other people do things that they love.
Speaker 3:Um, so I do that a bunch. Um, I've I've never been big into cooking. I always assumed I couldn't, but ever since I started working at Bella Fina and I've had these wonderful volunteers who have actually mentored me in the kitchen, I have started to play a little bit more in my kitchen, which has been fun. I don't do it a lot, but I have found that I like trying things, which has been a fun little new hobby.
Speaker 2:Same here. Very therapeutic Right.
Speaker 3:What's your favorite thing to cook?
Speaker 2:My favorite thing to cook? Yeah, you know, I don't really have a favorite. I like experimenting. I do casseroles. I like to experiment with casseroles. What about you?
Speaker 3:Let's see, last night I made an Italian burger and it was basically I had ground meat, I had ground turkey, but I didn't have buns, and my dad was coming over and so I had these ciabatta rolls and I was like, okay, well, what is that? So I just Googled and all of a sudden you started seeing Italian things. So it was like um, the herbs you put in the meat was not that much different, but it was basically that on like toasted ciabatta with um sun-dried tomatoes and basil, um pesto and prosciutto, which you could also use bacon Any salty meat would have done. It was so good.
Speaker 2:Yummy, it sounds wonderful, wonderful. Love pesto too.
Speaker 3:Well, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Bella Fina chocolates yeah, okay, ok, so there's logistical things that I think are super fun, that help us be available for customers. One just remembering that we we can customize things, but we don't have to customize things. We do have a Web site. It's actually getting revamped, so it's going to be new and improved soon, so you can order online or you can visit our shop down on Cherokee Street in downtown Kingsport. We're open 10 to 3, monday through Friday. We can also ship across the US, which makes us really great for when you want to share a little extra love to people that aren't here, and so those would be the key factors. Those would be the key factors and just remembering that every purchase that you make greater you people out there, every purchase that you make is providing employment for women that are overcoming barriers in their lives, knowing that we're going to invest all of our profits into organizations that are caring and supporting vulnerable children.
Speaker 2:That's a wonderful cause. Thank you for doing that, and I assume how our listeners can learn more. I guess go to your website. Yeah, and that is Belafina.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's Belafinacom.
Speaker 2:Belafinacom. Okay, very good, and phone number is 423-292-2271. All right, very good. Well, just thank you so much. I really appreciate you being on the show. Thank you for all that you guys are doing and we wish you and Bella Fina Chocolates all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you, skip, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-785-5873.