As the sun tries to make its way up over
324 Well Street in Greenfield, within
the confines of this old warehouse
building, there's already a crew hard
at work. This is the Western
Massachusetts Food Processing Center,
an operation of the Franklin County
Community Development Corporation.
And while on the surface it may appear
to be just a micro-assembly line, there
is a much bigger purpose being
addressed, in particular for local
farmers and budding entrepreneurs
looking to get their product out to
market, but needing the production
capabilities to do so.
Food entrepreneurs often come to us with
an idea and they don't really
understand how they're going to
actually make it happen.
So, the manufacturing end of things can
be a little confusing for people.
So, we like to invite them into the
kitchen to see the space, to understand
the equipment that we're working with,
and start to think about scalability of
the product, right? So, we're not going
to be making a product in a five gallon
stockpot on our kitchen stovetop
forever. Eventually, we're going to
want to scale up and make a few
thousand units at a time, 10,000 units
at a time. So, we try to sort of
demystify some of that, like, what is
food manufacturing, what's involved,
and what does scalability look like for
a small business?
When we dropped in, there wasn't a dry
eye in the house, as the order for the
day was onions -- lots of them.
But each day often presents a new
product and thanks to some in-depth
training and preparation, the team is
always up to the task.
Monday, we might be making a hot fudge;
Tuesday, we might be making a pickled
onion product; and Wednesday we might
be making a pesto.
It's different every single day, and we
support entrepreneurs all the way from
Connecticut to northern Maine to New
York City, and then we have some folks
right here from Greenfield as well.
So, who exactly is this well-oiled
machine processing, all of this food?
The FCCDC hires through a temp agency,
and in the case of the kitchen here,
through the local sheriff's department
. Upon release from incarceration,
they're brought on as temps looking to
get a second chance.
And judging by the rate of retention,
it seems to be working.
Well, we spend a lot of time cultivating
a really good team. And so, at this
point, we've had six crew members
who've been with us for a couple of
years. So, they're invested, they're
passionate about the products that
they're making. They're really excited
to support the entrepreneurs that we
come to know and love over years of
working with them. And then, we just
have an awesome leadership team here.
So, our Director of Operations, Liz
Buxton, does a great job sort of
cultivating that -- that culture in
which people feel comfortable coming
forward with issues and feel
comfortable presenting new solutions
for doing something differently and
doing something better.
While the food processing center may get
the lion's share of the attention,
because while they've been here for over
20 years, one detail that shouldn't be
overlooked about this operation is that
this place has been a hub for
entrepreneurs of all stripes.
The folks at Catalyst Kombucha are a
perfect example.
They've been using this space here for
several years to manufacture their
product.
We are a lot of things.
We are a small business incubator
space. And so, what you see from the
road when you drive in is our venture
center and our food processing center.
So, we have businesses who get started
with us by renting space and they are
able to rent at a lower cost.
And so, then they're able to grow and
eventually move out and get facilities
of their own.
Chances are, if there's a local business
in Franklin County and some of the
surrounding areas that started small
and needed financing along the way,
they came through the FCCDC.
The annual budget here is $2.7 mllion,
and they've got their sights set on a
target of $400,000 in donations this
year in order to keep it up and
running.
We have a lot of balls in play here when
it comes to finances. We have a few key
financing streams, donations, you know,
being one of them. We have income from
our food processing center, income from
our tenants, and then we rely on grants
. And grants through the federal
government, state government.
And so, all those pieces play together
so that we can comfortably know, you
know, that our operations are strong and
we'll be here for many years to come.