Community Stories — Filipino social enterprise

When you unwrap a Theo and Philo bar from The Good Store, you’re tasting more than chocolate—you’re tasting Davao soil, Mindanao sunshine, and years of farmer know-how. So our team flew south to see where it all began.  Morning in Malabog We met Theo and Philo founder Philo Chua at a partner farm community in Malabog, Davao City. This is where Theo and Philo sources the single-origin cacao that goes into bars like their 90% Dark and signature Tablea. The beans here thrive in Davao’s “fertile land and temperate climates,” which locals say produce some of the best cacao in...

The co-founders of The Good Store with some of the local social entrepreneurs and community partners.   A 2015 report by The British Council describes the social enterprise scene in the Philippines as vibrant and growing. As early as 2007, there were already 30,000 registered social enterprises in the country as stated in the report. Ms. Maria Angela Flores of the PH British Council notes that the majority of these social enterprises are product or commodity-based. It is in these sentiments that they have founded the I am a Changemaker Social Enterprise Competition in 2009. Through that program, they were...