Community Involvement
At Succulent Chocolates, we believe in giving back to the community, this is especially true for the female community. As a young female entrepreneur, Owner and Lead Chocolatier Sandra Abballe-domanico is a firm believer in female empowerment and looks for every opportunity to help get involved.
In 2024, Succulent Chocolates will be donating $1 from each Biscoff Cookie Reindeer sold to the Vaughan Food Bank. This is Succulent Chocolates way of giving back to our community in which we work and operate in.
In 2023, Succulent Chocolates the Chum City Christmas Wish was the chosen charity for the holiday season. From each Cookies and Cream Nutcracker sold, $1 was donated and we were able to give back $1064 to the charity.
Since 2021, Succulent Chocolates has been donating to Sick Kids Hospital through our Chocolate Hearts to Little Hearts program. Each Valentine's season we choose a product to promote and $1 from each one sold goes directly to Sick Kids Cardiology Ward. This is a cause that is very close to Chef Sandra as she has personally spent a lot of time at Sick Kids Cardiology Ward when her son Dante was born.
In November of 2019, Succulent Chocolates donated to St. David’s Parish for their annual High Tea Event. This event is one of their most successful fundraising initiatives that allows them to raise funds to help sponsor children’s eduction in various improvised countries and to help support the needs of St. David’s Paris. Succulent Chocolates provided boxes of their hand painted bonbons to give to the attendees of the event as a thank you for their support of the Church and it’s initiatives.
In May of 2019, Succulent Chocolates donated chocolate to Mom’s Camp for their goodies bag given to each mother in attendance. Easter Seals “Mom’s Camp” is the one and only break for many of these moms of severely disabled children. Their daily routine of providing support, resources, dedication and love is what ensures basic health and quality of life for their children. If these moms do not remain healthy and strong, both physically and mentally, the lives of their special children will be greatly impacted.
UHN is a national asset. The work the hospital does has an important impact locally, regionally and around the world – they state they have an obligation to Canadians to find cures and solutions. They are transforming lives and communities through excellence in care, discovery and learning. Just as they care for the community in which they operate in, we at Succulent Chocolates want to help and be involved as well, we have donated our hand painted bonbons to a gala that the Princess Margaret Hospital held.
Because I am a Girl is a global initiative to end gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls - and everyone around them - out of poverty. Studies show that investing in girls is the key to transforming lives, lifting families, communities, and entire nations out of poverty. Succulent Chocolates is proud to support this amazing cause! Succulent chocolates strives to always give back to the community and donated chocolate for an event held by Because I am a Girl.
March 2017, we supported the Canadian Italian Business Professional Association by donating chocolate event favours to their Women in Business evening.The Canadian Italian Business Professional Association provides leadership to all member Chapters and constituent members across the country on debates of national economic importance and encourages all member Chapters, executive officers and board members to actively contribute to the pursuit and achievement of their common goals and to the growth of the Federation at all levels.
A Cure in the Future is an organization of dedicated volunteers whose goal is to raise funds to help Canada's top cancer research centre, The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, achieve their vision to "conquer cancer in our lifetime". They believe there is a HOPE and together the fight to conquer cancer will be won. In February 2017, Succulent Chocolates supported the Retro Gala for Princess Margaret Hospital by donating truffles to create a chocolate pairing experience at the bar.
In September 2016 and 2017, we supported the North York Women's Shelter by donating chocolate favours to their annual gala. North York Women’s Shelter actively supports the rights of women and children to build lives free of violence by providing non-judgemental safe shelter, advocacy, and a range of programs & services including 24-hour crisis support.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a national, community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is the eradication of cancer and the enhancement of the quality of life of people living with cancer. In 2017, we supported the Canadian Cancer Society , Canadian Women's Hockey League and Waves for Change by supplying baskets for their raffle filled with Succulent Chocolates chocolates and confections.
Chef Sandra was approached to support the Sanfilippo Gala to support their chocolate theme gala. The story of Elisa Linton's battle with the rare genetic disorder called Sanfilippo Syndrome, for which there is no cure or treatment, it captivated out team. We felt the need to help this family create a magical chocolate event. We presented a chocolate tasting station for their event where guests were able to purchase boxes of chocolates and all proceeds went to support Sanfilippo Gala.
After winning the WXN Top 100 Most Powerful Women Award in 2014, Sandra wanted to get more involved with the WXN community. Empowering other women in business is a high priority for Succulent Chocolates. This is why Succulent Chocolates and Sweets is the official chocolate sponsor for the WXN Breakfast series.
Recipe for Change is FoodShare’s annual signature fundraising event to promote healthy food and food literacy in schools. Recipe for Change is a way to connect, celebrate and savour with over 30 sweet and savoury dishes made by some of the city’s best chefs. We provided guests with samples of our all-natural granola bits and our earl grey bonbons throughout the night.
The Chocolate Ball is one of Toronto’s most elegant and lavish events held in Toronto with proceeds from the event going towards Prostate and Breast Cancer Initiatives. The evening was studded with events such as; silent auctions, savoury chocolate stations, photo booths, chocolate tasting stations and our signature Smore’s Station.
Eat to the Beat is a mecca for urban foodies who come to experience the best Ontario’s culinary scene has to offer. It is the only event in Canada that exclusively features the talent of 60 female chefs and women supporting women through the challenges that come with a breast cancer diagnosis. Guests had the opportunity to enjoy a selection of our award winning bonbons and granola bites during the nights festivities all in support of Willow Breast & Hereditary Cancer Support. Succulent Chocolates has been apart of this event for the past 5 years.
Succulent Chocolates was also the official chocolate sponsor for 2015's Stop the Abuse Conference put on by the Moving Forward Foundation. Domestic violence affects countless Canadians a year, and large portion of the victims of the violence happen to be women. Domestic violence is also an issue that is often swept under the rug and not discussed - we need to start the conversation to prevent it from happening.
Any time there is an opportunity to empower and improve the lives of women, Succulent Chocolates is quick to join the cause. Succulent Chocolates was also the chocolate sponsor for 2015's TEDx Women Vaughan Conference. TEDx Vaughan Women brought many talented female experts from different fields together to share new ideas that will improve the way we live today.
Because I am a Girl is a global initiative to end gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls - and everyone around them - out of poverty. Studies show that investing in girls is the key to transforming lives, lifting families, communities, and entire nations out of poverty. Succulent Chocolates is proud to support this amazing cause! During this holiday season, $5 for each participant in our Truffle Making Workshop will be donated back to Because I am a Girl.
Succulent Chocolates is a proud member of the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce. We travel through the GTA but we are based in Vaughan and we are always interested in interacting with the Vaughan business community.