Grow Your Own Food-Based Business 

There’s a big market out there for local, specialty and value-added food-based products.  Luckily, there’s also good support in the Pioneer Valley for growing your own food-based business.  Food-based businesses are those whose product is processed in some way – cooked, refrigerated, frozen, fermented, bottled or canned – prior to sale, but they’re not as simple to be in as you might think.  Scaling recipes, dealing with food safety requirements and regulations, and food production licensing are a few of the hard issues, not to mention that maybe it’s time to upgrade to a commercial kitchen.

Fortunately, the Food Processing Center at the Franklin County CDC in Greenfield has been helping people start and grow businesses since 2001.  Join us for this discussion with Food Processing Center Business Development Specialist, Nico Lustig, to learn about the resources and services to get your name on your label with yummy food inside.

This program is jointly brought to you by the Springfield Chapter of SCORE, the Business Growth Center, the Franklin County Community Development Corporation, and the UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment.

Participants will:

1.  Learn about the Franklin County CDC and the Western MA Food Processing Center in Greenfield, MA.

2.  Gain an understanding for the certifications, licenses, and regulations needed for manufacturing food products.

3.  Understand first and next steps needed for developing a business plan for a food business.

4.  Learn about funding options available for Pioneer Valley farm and food related businesses.

5. Take away: resource lists of food business related contacts for packaging, labels, ingredients, and food labs.  Invitation for a tour of the Food Processing Center.

Registration and networking with refreshments will begin at 5:30pm.  The program will begin at 6:00pm.

Register Now!