June 19: Father’s Day French Broad River Clean-up

French Broad Chocolates, South Slope Businesses, MountainTrue, and Asheville Greenworks Team Up for Our River

Asheville, N.C. — French Broad Chocolates is partnering with MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper and Asheville Greenworks to present a special Father’s Day River clean-up. Fathers, mothers and children are all invited to come out on the water and lend a hand cleaning up the French Broad River. This will be a rewarding day of hard work. Pulling trash from the river helps to maintain the natural ecosystem and aquatic habitats and provides a cleaner environment for our river-users!

Father’s Day River Clean-Up by French Broad Chocolates, MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper and Asheville GreenWorks
Hominy Creek River Park, Asheville
June 19 at 10:30 a.m.
Link to register for the River Clean-up: http://action.mountaintrue.org/page/s/fb-river-clean-up-with-fb-chocolate-lounge-and-asheville-greenworks

Father’s Day French Broad River After-Party by French Broad Chocolates, Catawba Brewing Co. and MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper
Catawba Brewing Co, 32 Banks Avenue, Asheville
June 19 at 4:00 p.m.

As a thank you for all this hard work, participants will receive a goodie bag full of Father’s Day treats from French Broad Chocolates including the seasonal, limited-edition Bourbon & Beer Collection, made with local craft beers and fine spirits. The day’s volunteers will also be invited to join us for pints at an afterparty at Catawba, and will receive a complimentary raffle ticket to win a premium prize package valued at over $300 including products and gift certificates from French Broad Chocolates, Catawba Brewing Co., Buxton Hall, Burial Beer, Vortex Donuts, Green Man Brewery, Nantahala Outdoor Center and MountainTrue. Tia B’s Taco Truck will also be on location.

You don’t need to participate in the cleanup to be part of the fun and help keep the French Broad River clean and beautiful. The public is invited to the afterparty where additional raffle tickets for the South Slope prize package will be for sale and Catawba will be pouring their Astral Booty Beer IPA – proceeds from the sale of each benefit MountainTrue.

Dan Rattigan, co-owner and founder of French Broad Chocolates:
“The French Broad River, our company’s namesake, is a symbol of our relationship to Asheville, and a reminder that we are all connected. I can think of no better way to celebrate Father’s Day than to spend quality time making a positive impact on the river with my wife Jael and our two sons.”

Anna Alsobrook, MountainTrue Assistant French Broad Riverkeeper:
“We all understand how important the French Broad River is to Asheville and our community. We’re thrilled to have partners such as French Broad Chocolates, Catawba Brewing, Buxton Hall BBQ and other South Slope businesses supporting this work and willing to get their hands dirty to help us keep our river clean. Dads, moms, everybody, come out and care for mother earth! We all play a role when it comes protecting the environment.”

This event is a great opportunity to celebrate Father’s Day, make a tangible contribution to Asheville’s most important natural asset, and raise awareness about issues that affect the cleanliness of our French Broad River. The French Broad River is a natural and economic resource for Asheville and the region and is enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. It is home to several fish species and a playground for the thousands of people paddle and play on the river every year.

There are limited canoes available, register your spot today: http://action.mountaintrue.org/page/s/fb-river-clean-up-with-fb-chocolate-lounge-and-asheville-greenworks

For more details or questions about this event, contact Anna Alsobrook, Assistant French Broad Riverkeeper at anna@mountaintrue.org  

About French Broad Chocolates:
Husband and wife team, Dan and Jael Rattigan lived and worked in the cacao-rich rainforest of Costa Rica for two years. At the restaurant they opened, Bread and Chocolate, they were able to source local chocolate for their handmade desserts, sparking a passion for cacao and all things chocolate. They moved to Asheville, NC in 2006 to pursue their chocolate path and opened French Broad Chocolates in 2007.

What started as a farmers market stand has grown to include a web store (frenchbroadchocolates.com), a dessert restaurant, French Broad Chocolate Lounge, a boutique, Chocolate + Milk (est. 2008), and a Chocolate Factory & Tasting Room (est. 2012), where they import cacao and then roast, winnow, grind, conche and temper it into bean-to-bar chocolate. The chocolate is transformed into their collection of artisan chocolate bars, and is used as an ingredient in their pastries and confections at the Chocolate Lounge.

Restaurant Summary:
French Broad Chocolate Lounge is devoted to creating superb chocolates and pastries, using ingredients thoughtfully sourced for their integrity. All of our chocolates and desserts are made using our own bean-to-bar chocolate, with cacao sourced directly from small farms and cooperatives, and made right down the road in our Chocolate Factory!  Our mission is to channel our love, our creativity and our passion through the gift of chocolate. We want to create a deeper connection with the source of our food, and we want to share it with you.

French Broad Chocolates + Sustainability:
Our commitment to sustainability and our local economy informs everything we do here at French Broad Chocolates. We aim to support “the little guys,” and we find we’ve found that we can obtain the majority of the ingredients we need from farms and producers right in our backyard (keeping dollars circulating locally as well as reducing our carbon footprint). If unable to buy locally (because, hey, we need things like chocolate and sugar!), we buy direct from farmers in other regions whose food standards match our own. In addition to ethical sourcing, we compost all food waste at both our Factory and the Chocolate Lounge and take great care to use as many biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable materials as possible –  even our gorgeous new bar packaging is 100% compostable and printed locally! We installed a 5-panel solar hot water system, including a 97% efficient hot water heater and ship all of our orders in biodegradable packaging, including insulation and ice packs in warm months. We also participate in programs like Bicycle Benefits, which incentivizes both cycling and supporting local businesses.
frenchbroadchocolates.com

About MountainTrue
MountainTrue fosters and empowers communities throughout the region and engages in policy and project advocacy, outreach and education, and on the ground projects. To achieve our goals, MountainTrue focuses on a core set of issues across 23 counties of Western North Carolina: sensible land use, restoring public forests, protecting water quality and promoting clean energy – all of which have a high impact on the environmental health and long-term prosperity of our residents. MountainTrue is the home of the Watauga Riverkeeper, the primary watchdog and spokesperson for the Elk and Watauga Rivers; the French Broad Riverkeeper, the primary protector and defender of the French Broad River watershed; and Broad River Alliance, a Waterkeeper Affiliate working to promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters in the Broad River Basin. For more information: mountaintrue.org
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