Lauren Blanco and Preston Stewart two University of Arkansas alumni pulled together their savings in 2014 to buy their first pieces of chocolate making equipment.

Lauren with a background in cultural anthropology and French spent 5 years working in grassroots economic development in war torn countries where she saw business as a force of good and encountered her first cacao farm. Driven to make a positive difference in the cacao supply chain she leads the company's strategy creative direction and product development.

Preston with a background in chemistry and a passion for food science brought the technical and science approach to chocolate making. After tasting craft chocolate for the first time he dove headfirst into flavor creation and machine tinkering to figure out the process of making chocolate from scratch.

Our company values are celebration and restoration. We seek to celebrate people and the cocoa bean and to restore our supply chain and the earth one chocolate bar at a time.

We do this through sustainable practices like a (near)zero waste initiative compostable and recyclable packaging; through investing in transparency in our supply chain and higher quality cocoa beans.

At Markham & Fitz we celebrate people creativity and craft. We acknowledge the invisible woven network of people and plants that sustains our lives and livelihoods. We understand that truly good things take time intention and an unrelenting commitment to a more just world.