Graduates of the Western Mass Food Processing Center's Wholesale Readiness Program were just a few of the scores of vendors sharing their wares at the Boston Local Food Festival last weekend.

Check out what they are cooking up!

• Tasty AF Chili Oil
• Truffles by Tarah,
• Mosi Vegan Catering
• GoodieKrunch
• Horse Mountain Dad Sauce

Are you an early-stage, but established food entrepreneur selling a consumer packaged good or value-added product? Are you primarily selling direct to consumer and ready to begin selling to stores (or more stores!) in your region? Stay tuned for more information on the next session of our Wholesale Readiness Program! Registration opens in October.

Photos by Massachusetts Agriculture Innovation Center Director Tricia Wancko

Props to the Western Mass Food Processing Center Crew members, led by Evan Manning, who tricked out a trailer in the theme of the Franklin County Fair this year: Larger Than Life. There were gigantic Valley Veggie frozen strawberries, a humungous jar of salsa, and a big red apple on the float. Staffers, friends, and family donned inflatable costumes (in the 90+ degree heat!) to march the 2-mile parade route through Greenfield, handing out apples and sunflower-seed packets. Was it all worth it? Oh definitely! We won the blue ribbon (for the third year in a row) in the nonprofit category. Yeehaw!

It was wonderful to welcome Ari Velóz, Chief Community Programs Officer at the Mass Growth Capital Corp. (MGCC), on Friday! Ari toured the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center (WMFPC), and paid a visit to Artisan Beverage Cooperative (ABC), even taking a peek at their kombucha fermentation process! A longtime tenant at the Franklin County CDC's Venture Center, ABC is also a loan client. It's MGCC funding that allows the Franklin County CDC to circulate (and recirculate!) loans and grants to businesses, creating sustainable locally rooted jobs in western Massachusetts.

Left photo: Ari Velóz and ABC worker-owner Jon Shina inspect the kombucha; middle photo: FCCDC consultant Amy Shapiro, Ari, and Operations and Production Floor Supervisor Scott Savoie in the WMFPC walk-in cooler; right photo: Ari checks out the canning machine at ABC

During a crowded fundraiser for the Farm Resilience Fund on August 30 at Berkshire Brewing Company in Deerfield, U.S. Congressman James McGovern was one of several officials who expressed support for farmers in the wake of devastating weather this spring and summer.

“Agriculture is an important part of the history of this region. I want it to be an important part of the future of this region. This is one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in a long, long time. I want to thank you for turning out, thank you for your support. And for the farmers, please know, we will be wind at your back. We will always be there for you. We will keep fighting for you.”

Thank you to everyone who has donated or volunteered to help our agricultural community. Gifts to the statewide fund are being accepted, as are investments in the PVGrows Investment Fund, which supplies funds for the zero-interest loans from CISA and the Franklin County CDC.

The Franklin County CDC and the Mass Agriculture Innovation Center (MAAIC) represented at the 23rd annual Caribbean Carnival and Parade in Springfield last month.

At left, Myra Marcellin, MAAIC Financial Business Advisor, was an organizer of the parade! She's with Judy Scherer, FCCDC Operations Director, and Tricia Wancko, MAAIC Director (kneeling).

Congratulations to PV Squared, our Greenfield-based neighbor and former Venture Center tenant, who celebrated their 2,000th solar panel installation last month! Read more about the evolution of this sustainably growing worker-owned cooperative in the Amherst Bulletin.

Photo by Paul Franz

If you’ve driven on Route 2 in Erving, chances are you’ve seen Flis Market. Located in the former home of the town’s namesake, John Erving, the community-based general store serves up house-made grab-and-go lunches and dinners seven days a week, as well as meat and cheese; beer, wine, and spirits; and grocery items.

Owners Jon and Liz Flis have invested heavily in the historic building (there is a photo of it dated 1825), recently securing a Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant through the U.S.D.A. to improve access to fresh, healthy foods in underserved communities. That grant allowed the two to purchase three retail coolers, expand the parking lot, and renovate an entire portion of the building where they are installing a new walk-in cooler and building a commercial kitchen.

“We’re going to be able to increase our freezer space and our cooler space and hopefully be able to provide more healthy fresh food, which has been a real challenge for us, given the setup,” said Liz, who called out the help the town of Erving’s planner Mariah Kurtz provided in seeking out that federal funding.

In addition, financing from the Massachusetts Food Trust helped them purchase a retail freezer. “We were working with the inefficient kind–a reach-in freezer,” said Liz. “Everything was piled on top of each other.” The new freezer gives customers a much better customer experience, she explained.

Back in 2019, Liz and Jon reached out to the Franklin County CDC for help getting started. They worked with Amy Shapiro, then the Business Development Director and currently a consultant, to write a business plan. “Amy helped us with our business plan and guided us in a way that we didn’t realize we even needed when it came to a commercial loan for a property,” Liz said. “I mean, the first thing the bank asks is, do you have a business plan? Ours was completely fleshed out and ready to go because of the work we had done with Amy and with the FCCDC. That was really critical and helpful right out of the gate.” 

Read the full story.

Tanisha Arena, Executive Director of Arise for Social Justice and a Franklin County CDC board member, presented a workshop called Moving Past Palatable Diversity on September 20. She challenged her listeners, asking "Are you adding diversity for the perception of inclusion or are you prepared to let diversity change your organization?"

Arena spoke about being unapologetic when confronting oppression and injustice. She likened structural racism to the operating system that runs our computers. Every email, every document that purports to try to make change—it’s still within the system. Without really dismantling the system and starting over, organizations are merely engaging in what she called "palatable diversity."

“Palatable diversity doesn’t get us to truth," she said. "Palatable diversity doesn’t get us to change.” 

The workshop was sponsored by the Wildflower Alliance and the Western Mass Training Consortium Anti-Oppression Committee.

Photo of Tanisha Arena at a Franklin County CDC event by Shannon Martineau

The Western Mass Food Processing Center crew will once again be arriving here at 3:30 a.m. to make hundreds of gallons of real hot cocoa with ingredients donated by local businesses for this year's Hot Chocolate Run for Safe Passage on December 3—its 20th anniversary! We are proud to be involved with this wonderful and impactful event that helps Safe Passage work to combat domestic violence. Donate to our team here!

Client Checkerspot Farm hosted a meadow tour, sponsored by the Franklin County Conservation District, earlier this month.

This retailer of baked goods, local farm products, and native plants is devoted to pollinator habitat and is located on scenic Route 112 in Colrain. Lending Director Glen Ohlund attended the meadow walk and snapped up some plants, as well as this photo.

Friends of Reusable Bags, a project of Greening Greenfield, a wonderful organization that the Franklin County CDC is the fiscal sponsor for, received a donation of 860 T-shirts in 2019. The goal was to turn the the shirts into bags to distribute before and as Greenfield’s plastic bag ban went into effect in January 2020. 

The company SwagCycle pairs charities (like Greening Greenfield) with corporations with branded merchandise they no longer can use because of logo changes, dissolution, corporate mergers, etc. Eight hundred and sixty tees is a lot of shirts. But Greening Greenfield has found homes for them all!

Their efforts slowed a bit in early 2020, but over time, they worked with individual sewing enthusiasts, the Greenfield Senior Center, the Textile Store, a community volunteer day at Greenfield High School, and more to make more than 450 bags. The bags have been saved by their makers, or given away at Foster's, the Senior Center, and the Center for Self-Reliance.

One hundred of the largest tees are being turned into 200 super hero capes for campers at the YMCA. Nearly 300 will remain T-shirts, as they have been re-donated to Community Support Options, who said they have storage in Springfield where they currently had women’s shirts, but none for men, and they were thrilled to come collect them. 

Greening Greenfield saved out a final 10 that they brought to Source to Sea along with the directions of how to make them into bags.

Congratulations for creatively reusing all those shirts and saving them from the landfill!

Summit

Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

Equity in the 413:Western Massachusetts Racial Equity Summit is a convening to support relationship building across several industry areas. This call-to-action will help attendees from our region align our readiness and efforts to advance racial equity in the workplaces and organizations across western Massachusetts. Franklin County CDC Racial Justice and Community Engagement Leader Traci Talbert will be leading a session. Learn more and register online.

• October 24, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Sheraton Springfield

Classes and Workshops

Successful Value-Added Food Product Development for Farm and New Food Businesses: Managing Food Quality and Safety

Are you a farmer diversifying into value-added production or an entrepreneur developing new and exciting products? Do you have questions about how to integrate food safety and quality into the development of a value-added food product? We’re hosting a workshop on 11/29 just for you in collaboration with CISA, UMass Amherst, URI, and Commonwealth Kitchen. Learn more and register online. Questions? Contact Tricia Wancko at the MA Ag Innovation Center and Western MA Food Processing Center. 

• November 29, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Zoom

Small Business Financial Empowerment Series

The Massachusetts Treasury's Small Business Initiative is collaborating with Citizens Bank to offer free small business webinars this fall. Register for any of these hour-long classes, or all, online.

• Financial Management – September 27, 3 p.m.
• Communicating your Business – October 4, 3 p.m.

Western Mass Means Business

An overview of how the Western Mass Means Business Collaborative—Common Capital,

MA Small Business Development Center, SCORE, Franklin County CDC, and Valley Community Development—can support your small business. Topics covered will include programs, resources, and loan and grant opportunities available. Register at Valley CDC.

• November 1, 5 to 6:15 p.m. on Zoom

Event

Greenfield Business Association and the City of Greenfield

Greenfield Vintage Days, September 25, in Greenfield. The City has been working with the Greenfield Business Association to bring back this special weekend event celebrating our awesome Vintage scene in Greenfield. More info here.

Transition

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts sold its Hatfield building and property to Myers Produce, a woman-owned regional produce distributor and trucking company offering farmer-focused distribution, freight, and warehousing services. The strategic decision to sell the building marks a significant milestone for both businesses. The Food Bank will move to its new location at 25 Carew Street, Chicopee, during the last week of August and Myers Produce will move into its new Hatfield facility in October. Congratulations, both!

Just a reminder that we gratefully accept donations to help us deliver services to low and moderate income entrepreneurs and small business owners! Every gift is appreciated, and donations over $1,000 are eligible for a 50% tax credit (so you can double your impact!).

You can set up a monthly, quarterly, yearly, or one-time donation securely on our website. Thank you to everyone of you who supports this work financially and in countless other ways!

Grow Your Farm with Value-Added Food Products

We'll guide you through the food business roadmap!

Fourth Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

Upcoming virtual session is on September 27.

Grow Your Business

For businesses of all types at any stage

First Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

Upcoming virtual session is on October 4.

Financing Farms and Healthy Food Retail

Professional guidance on local food businesses

Second Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

Upcoming virtual session is on October 11.

Starting a Food Product Business

Got a dream product? We can help!

Third Tuesdays at 10 a.m.

Upcoming virtual session is on October 17.

Franklin County CDC | 324 Wells Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 | 413-774-7204