Tueday April 17th, 2012,
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate . . . today is fill with Chocolate! We are going to Hershey World created by one and only Milton Hershey. We did a chocolate unit study about 3 years ago and studied Mr. Hershey as part of it. Ever since I learned about his life I’ve wanted to come to Hershey, Pennslyvania. He was a fascinating person and he made a huge impact on Brandon because he always uses him as one of his impromptu speech examples. Milton Hershey had several failures, but that didn’t stop him . . . he pressed on to become not only one of America’s wealthiest individuals, but also a successful entrepreneur whose products are known all over the world. He is a great example of perseverance. He was raised in rural central Pennsylvania, without a formal education, and was nearly bankrupt by the time he was 30. He was also a visionary builder of the Hershey town and his generosity continues to touch the lives of thousands even today.
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate . . . today is fill with Chocolate! We are going to Hershey World created by one and only Milton Hershey. We did a chocolate unit study about 3 years ago and studied Mr. Hershey as part of it. Ever since I learned about his life I’ve wanted to come to Hershey, Pennslyvania. He was a fascinating person and he made a huge impact on Brandon because he always uses him as one of his impromptu speech examples. Milton Hershey had several failures, but that didn’t stop him . . . he pressed on to become not only one of America’s wealthiest individuals, but also a successful entrepreneur whose products are known all over the world. He is a great example of perseverance. He was raised in rural central Pennsylvania, without a formal education, and was nearly bankrupt by the time he was 30. He was also a visionary builder of the Hershey town and his generosity continues to touch the lives of thousands even today.
As we entered the visitor center there was a free ride that shows the chocolate making process out of the Cocoa bean. It reminded me of a Disneyland ride for younger kids. It was adorable.
Next, Shelley and I signed up for the chocolate tasting class, so we went into a special little room and sat at the table with a table mat, a bag full of chocolate, and a chocolate drink. She told us all about the history of the cocoa bean and how it becomes chocolate. Then she made us put our 5 different types of chocolate on our mat. We were told that it is very important to look, small, listen, and then taste the chocolate to help determine the different flavors. It was a fun class
After we were done with the class we let the kids do a make your own chocolate something and they all choose a make your own sundae. They got to pick their 3 toppings and they had a blast. While they were waiting for their sundaes to be brought out, she gave them white chocolate paint to decorate the table paper with.
We made them stuff it down so that we could make it on time to our Trolley ride around Hershey Town, which was fabulous. The tour guide had been a teacher at the Hershey Institute for boys for 29 and now does these tours. It was obvious that he loved his job. He told us the whole history of Milton Hershey and how, and why he created this town.
This is his story in a nutshell:
Hershey company originated with Milton Hershey’s decision in 1894 to produce sweet chocolate as a coating for his caramels. Located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the new enterprise was named the Hershey Chocolate Company. In 1900, the company began producing milk chocolate in bars, wafers and other shapes. With mass production, Hershey was able to lower the per-unit cost and make milk chocolate, once a luxury item for the wealthy, affordable to all. One early advertising slogan described this new product as “a palatable confection and a most nourishing food.”
The immediate success of Hershey’s low-cost, high-quality milk chocolate soon caused the Milton to consider increasing his production facilities. He decided to build a new chocolate factory on the farmland of south-central Pennsylvania in Derry Township, where he had been born. Close to the ports of New York and Philadelphia that supplied the imported sugar and cocoa beans needed, surrounded by dairy farms that provided the milk required, and with a local labor supply of honest, hardworking people, the location was perfect. By the summer of 1905, the new factory was turning out delicious milk chocolate.
Looking to expand its product line, the company in 1907 began producing a flat-bottomed, conical milk chocolate candy that Mr. Hershey decided to name HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolates. At first, they were individually wrapped in little squares of silver foil, but in 1921 machine wrapping was introduced. That technology was also used to add the familiar “point” at the top to signify that this was a genuine HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolate. In 1924, the company even had it trademarked.
Throughout the next two decades, even more products were added including MR. GOODBAR Candy Bar (1925), HERSHEY’S Syrup (1926), HERSHEY'S chocolate chips (1928) and the KRACKEL bar (1938). Despite the Great Depression of the 1930s, these products helped the Hershey Chocolate Corporation maintain a profit and avoid any worker layoffs.
He believed, along with the more forward-thinking industrialists of the age, that workers who were treated fairly and who lived in a comfortable, pleasant environment would be better workers. Consequently, he started building a town to take care of the people who were employed by his company. He had plans drawn up for a model community that included housing for executives and ordinary workers, schools, churches, parks, recreational facilities and a trolley system. Unlike other “company towns,” Hershey’s was intended to provide for their welfare. As time went on, Hershey saw to it that the town (named Hershey,
For the farm boy who never had much chance at education himself, providing that opportunity for others was always an important priority. As early as 1909, Hershey and his wife, Catherine, who were unable to have their own children, , established the Hershey Industrial School, a school for orphan boys. Today named the Milton Hershey School, it has since opened its doors to girls as well. He also made sure that the town of Hershey had the finest elementary and secondary schools possible. . In 1918 Hershey transferred the bulk of his considerable wealth, including his ownership in the Hershey Chocolate Company and other enterprises, to the Hershey Trust to be given to the Hershey Industrial School. He was quite a generous man and when the guide was talking about him dying with nothing and they he gave it all away to people who needed it, I had tears in my eyes. That is truly the way life should be!!
In 1923, a former Hershey employee named H.B. Reese decided to start his own candy company out of the basement of his home. He made several different kinds of candy, but it wasn’t until five years later that he hit upon his greatest idea: a confection of peanut butter covered by milk chocolate. During World War II, he discontinued his other product lines and concentrated on producing only REESE’S peanut butter cups.
Even though it had only a single product, Reese’s company prospered, and in 1963 the H.B. Reese Candy Company was purchased by the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Since then, the REESE’S product line has grown to include REESE’S PIECES candies, the NUTRAGEOUS candy bar and REESESTICKS
During WWII the military troops needed a ration bar that weighed about four ounces, would not melt at high temperatures, was high in food energy value, and did not taste so good that soldiers would be tempted to eat it except in an emergency. This last objective in particular was certainly a new one for the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Nevertheless, its chocolate technologists came up with something that passed all tests. Named “Field Ration D,” it was so successful that by the end of 1945, approximately 24 million bars were being produced every week. More successful still was HERSHEY’S Tropical Chocolate Bar, a heat resistant bar with an improved flavor developed in 1943. In 1971, this bar even went to the moon with Apollo 15.
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Today, The Hershey Company is the leading North American manufacturer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery and grocery products. HERSHEY’S products are known and enjoyed all over the world. In fact, the company exports to over 90 countries, with approximately 13,700 employees and net sales in excess of $4 billion..
With the death of Milton Hershey in 1945, the company, town and institutions that bear his name were well positioned to continue and grow. The Milton Hershey School, along with Hershey’s amusement park, hotel, neighborhoods, , has expanded and prospered, with the school housing and educating hundreds of boys and girls. In a long and useful life, Milton S. Hershey proved himself to be a courageous entrepreneur, a determined builder and a compassionate man.
I loved seeing Chocolate World today and I’ll never forget the type of man Milton Hershey was. Praise God for wonderful people like him who show the love the Jesus wants us to show daily!
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