Sarah Johnson, age 10, had never set eyes on a homeless person before this summer.

The homeless people the Akron girl saw during a vacation to California both moved and worried her.

And they inspired her do something rather unusual.

Sarah and her dad, Scott, who has worked in the chocolate industry for 12 years, recently made their own chocolate to raise money to help homeless people.

Not chocolates — actual chocolate, from cocoa beans, which they roasted, cracked, winnowed, ground, emulsified, tempered, molded and wrapped.

And, of course, tasted.

(Well, somebody had to make sure it was good.)

Now, the Johnson family is offering three half-pound boxes of their homemade, high-grade dark chocolate in an online silent auction, where every bid is a donation. All proceeds will benefit the Water Street Mission in Lancaster.

The mission is grateful.

"I think it's amazing to see anyone, especially a young child, thinking about others before themselves," said Maria Schaszberger, mission spokeswoman.

"It really does take a whole community to support the homeless, so to see someone like Sarah having a vision and following through with it — she's setting an example for all of us."

As Sarah waits to see how much money will be raised through the auction, which ends Sunday, she said she has learned two things from her experience:

• How to make chocolate.

• How to make a difference.

"There's always a way you can help, even if you think you can't. There's always a way," said the soft-spoken, articulate fifth-grader.

Sarah lives outside of Akron with her mom and dad. She goes to Ephrata Intermediate School, plays the clarinet and the piano, and takes dance lessons. Her favorite color is purple.

Her world simply never encompassed people sleeping on the street or holding a sign that says, "Need Food," until she saw them in San Diego during a vacation in August.

"They looked miserable," Sarah said. "And I didn't think it was fair that everyone has such nice things and is getting caught up in buying new things, when homeless people don't even have food."

Her mom, Kirsten, said, "When we went to restaurants, she didn't want to eat. She wanted to have her meal boxed up so she could give it to a homeless person."

The family ended up doing that, giving meals to people on the street.

But Sara wondered: Could they do more? Could they raise money to help families without homes and food in their own community?

The family started brainstorming and, influenced by Johnson's job as a senior scientist for Mars Snackfoods, first came up with the idea of making chocolate candy and then of actually making chocolate from raw materials.

Making chocolate seemed like a natural idea, Sarah said, because her dad talks about chocolate all the time.

Johnson, a native of Minnesota, said, "No I don't. Sometimes I talk about the Vikings, too."

He laughed.

"My first reaction was, 'Wow. This is too big. How am I going to do that?' "

But the more he thought about it, the more Johnson thought it was a good opportunity to teach his daughter that most problems are solvable, particularly if you reach out to others.

Johnson reached out to industry contacts, who donated beans from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela.

"These are very, very different from the beans used for most chocolates you find in the store," Johnson said.

Finding the beans was one thing. Turning them into chocolate was a whole other adventure.

Making chocolate is a complex procedure that takes huge equipment that fills up enormous buildings and costs millions of dollars.

The family had to figure out how to replicate the procedure on a much smaller scale in their own home.

The family reached out to other industries for equipment, modifying a rice grinder and a machine intended for home beer brewers for their own purposes.

The Johnsons made four batches of chocolate from the four groups of beans.

It wasn't a total success.

The family ended up tossing one batch, the chocolate made from the beans grown in Venezuela.

"It tasted a little bit like tar," Johnson said.

"Like dirt," his wife added, wrinkling her nose.

Sarah named her chocolate company "Kids 4 a Cause," which adorns the labels on the chocolate packed in wooden tea boxes.

Each box has four dozen pieces of chocolate, a mix of the varieties (the Dominican chocolate, which has a fruity taste, is the family's personal favorite).

One box will be paired with a $50 gift certificate from Lily's on Main restaurant in Ephrata. Another will be paired with an overnight stay at a local bed-and-breakfast (which has not been chosen yet).

Donations can be made online at: sarahschocolateproject.wordpress.com. That's the address of a blog the family is keeping about the project.

cstauffer@lnpnews.com