Chelsea Business Foundation
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Chelsea Business Foundation
Supporting small and Latino-led businesses during COVID & beyond
Financing
$37,500 Line of Credit
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea was one of the cities in Massachusetts hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. Though the city has just 40,000 residents, its infection rates in spring 2020 were on par with New York City and far outpaced surrounding communities.
Home to a majority Hispanic and Latino community, nearly 80 percent of Chelsea’s employed residents were deemed essential workers, according to an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. In addition, Chelsea is densely populated and its residents highly reliant on public transportation — all factors that contributed to devastating social and economic impacts as the cornovarius continued to rage.
Chelsea Business Foundation, a local nonprofit on a mission to promote a healthy business economy and support Latino and small businesses, took action to stabilize community businesses most impacted.
In December 2020, Fair Food Fund partnered with Boston Impact Initiative to provide Chelsea Business Foundation a line of credit, which it used to continue a business support grant program serving small and Latino-led businesses, approximately half of which are in the food sector.
As part of this work, Chelsea Business Foundation connected participating food businesses to a new market opportunity with a casino that is part of a high end hotel and resort in the area. Through targeted technical assistance, Chelsea Business Foundation helped the businesses prepare to work directly with the casino. This included shifts in their business models and operation as well as identification of a unique product or service to sell.
To date, Chelsea Business Foundation has supported 36 businesses with this program, which is not only helping these community-based businesses weather the COVID pandemic, but grow their customer base so that they can emerge stronger to support their community in the recovery to follow.