The holiday season is upon us! Looking for a way to support a local small business and give functional, fun, and delicious gifts? Consider purchasing from one of our clients, below! From mushrooms to meats, merch to mouth-watering condiments (and even live elves for your seasonal party) you’ll find something for everyone here. Interested in working with us or need help with your business? Learn more about what we do and get started here. Want to support the work we do with entrepreneurs throughout western Massachusetts? Donate securely here. Africana Villa – Egusi soup, anyone? Order melon seeds or
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Cynthia Walton and Amanda Perreault were part of the team that in 2019 launched The Break Room, a restaurant located in the Greylock Works converted mill in North Adams. Professionally trained pastry chefs—and friends since high school—they worked together for years building a reputation for high-quality, delicious pastries. After four years at The Break Room building a successful pastry program, they decided to start their own dessert business. With a positive reputation, high-level baking and organizational skills, many commercial and retail fans, and support from the commercial kitchen landlords at Greylock Works where they currently bake, Cynthia and Amanda were
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Two top-tier bakers seek sweet success Cynthia Walton and Amanda Perreault were part of the team that in 2019 launched The Break Room, a restaurant located in the Greylock Works converted mill in North Adams. Professionally trained pastry chefs—and friends since high school—they worked together for years building a reputation for high-quality, delicious pastries. After four years at The Break Room creating a successful pastry program, they decided to start their own business. With a positive reputation, high-level baking and organizational skills, many commercial and retail fans, and support from the commercial kitchen landlords at Greylock Works, Cynthia and Amanda
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Entrepreneurs turn a 6,000 square foot vacant building into a neighborhood asset providing healthy food that also meets the needs and tastes of a culturally diverse population. Africana Villa—a food market, West African restaurant (the first in the city of Springfield), and clothing store—opened its doors earlier this month at the corner of Locust and Dickinson streets in Springfield.  When Roseline and Obioma Chiuwa first reached out to FCCDC in the spring of 2022, it seemed like a logical progression to grow their Afro-Caribbean food buying “club” to a retail storefront in the Springfield neighborhood they called home. When staff
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Owners bring a lively market to an Erving landmark If you’ve driven on Route 2 in Erving, chances are you’ve seen Flis Market. Located in a 200-year-old structure formerly called Erving House, 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
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Artist Mari “Mars” Champagne poses and answers important questions Imagine an interactive program that provides business owners—from corporations to entrepreneurs—with a way to account for how race and racial justice take form in their workplace. The Racial Justice Reflective Journey tool prompts reflection on race, business demographics, and biases in order to facilitate a more open conversation about how racial perspectives play out in each individual workplace. The tool has been developed by a team led by Traci Talbert, the Racial Justice and Community Engagement Leader at the Franklin County CDC, with artist and activist Mari Champagne, Liz Goodman, and
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A store’s expansion creates new openings for internationally inspired local food At independent grocery store Al-Nassir International Market in West Springfield, you can find imported goods, homemade prepared food, home products, and—after working with the Franklin County CDC—halal meats. Halal food is food that adheres to Islamic law, as defined in the Koran. A stroll through the aisles provides shoppers with specialty and hard-to-find options ranging from shelf-stable date syrup and rose water to refrigerated items such as the thick yogurt-cheese, labneh. Freshly baked Turkish bread was coming out of the oven on the day we visited, and bags of
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This could be local malt’s moment. Craft brewers have always had a choice to make: Pay less for European malt or a bit more for domestic. However, increased costs for European malt—and for shipping it overseas—have Valley Malt co-founder Andrea Stanley and other domestic maltsters hoping for a tipping of the scale toward local product, and the sustainable impact this makes across its supply chain. Even as her costs rise, Stanley wants to be ready for any opportunities a changing market brings.  Malting is the process of germinating and then drying grain with hot air. When Valley Malt opened in
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Marlo Stein and Archer Meier started Round Table Farm in 2021 as the new stewards of the historic Robinson Farm in Hardwick, Massachusetts. Both proud queer and Jewish farmers who are passionate about building community, crafting beautiful products, and working in tandem with the land, they make small-batch, raw milk, aged cheeses that defy labels. Read on to learn more about Round Table Farm.    What brought you to this business? We have both been farming for many years and knew that at one point we wanted to run a creamery. Cheesemaking appealed to us because it was a venture
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An Anchor Dairy Moooves Forward It’s been a long time coming and Our Family Farms’ new bottling plant is now churning out milk in pretty new containers. At a recent grand opening at the Leyden-based Bree-Z-Knoll Farm, Angie Facey welcomed guests, including Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle, who pronounced June Dairy Month.   The $1.8 million, 4,500 square foot operation includes a creamery where the farm’s 120 happy cows step onto an automated milking station whenever they feel like it. The robots take it from there, collecting their fresh milk. The bottling plant fills quarts and pints
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