De La Sol Haiti company in Plaisance with premium vanilla beans and cacao

After returning home to Alabama, U.S., the Reynolds began putting into action ways they could help the residents of Haiti. Clothing and care packages were sent, but they also thought long term. The Reynolds collected funds to open a school for the children of Plaisance. With this project complete, they quickly moved to the next stage of support and that was to create jobs for the graduates, thus allowing the town to begin pulling itself out of poverty and become self-sustaining.

After learning that Haiti had once cultivated a thriving vanilla market, the Reynolds set out to support building a thriving economy around this product. Lending support to Haitian-based Vanilla Export Company, which provides the opportunity for income to 650 farmers and earned the Citizen Diplomat Award from Global Ties, locals planted 70,000 vanilla bean vines on cacao trees. This led to the creation of the De La Sol Haiti Company, based in Plaisance, focusing on product development and partnering with international companies for distribution. Currently, they have teamed up with Baltimore, Maryland based ice-cream company Taharka Brothers who place orders for Haiti's premium chocolate, and plan to add orders of vanilla bean as soon as the harvest is ready.

Working together in support of a common goal has proven to produce growing results in a country which is benefiting from the kindness of strangers. This is only the beginning.

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Read more: Agriculture, Plaisance, beans, cacao, Agriculture and Food

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