CommonWealth Kitchen, Boston’s nonprofit food business incubator, has teamed up with the MA250 initiative to create a special holiday gift box full of local foods that celebrate Boston’s revolutionary history. Featuring goods primarily made by BIPOC, immigrant-owned, and woman-owned businesses, the MA250 Holiday Gift Boxes showcase the diversity and talent of Boston’s food scene.
The gift boxes have been available annually for five years, but this is the first time CommonWealth Kitchen will collaborate with MA250 to celebrate the anniversary of the American Revolution.
“The anniversary of the state and the country next year has allowed us to lean into that theme in our own unique CommonWealth Kitchen way,” said Courtney Roy-Branigan, chief impact officer at CommonWealth Kitchen. “We have a handful of products from members featured in this year’s box that tie into that theme. For example, we have a delicious chai tea blend from Madhrasi Masala. And of course, tea is synonymous with Boston, with revolution and with the birth of democracy in the United States.”
Each MA250 Holiday Gift Box features 10 different treats from small businesses, ranging the gamut from a Minuteman Marinara sauce straight from Boston’s North End to Fluffenutter Cookies from the Black-owned shop Boston Cookie Kitchen, run by Boston native Daniel Igbokwe.
“I think Massachusetts is super diverse,” said Igbokwe in a promotional video for CommonWealth Kitchen. “We’re a winning state, we win at sports, we win in just about anything. The people here are great, so we try to match that quality with our cookies.”
CommonWealth Kitchen also partnered with a few other nonprofits and small businesses in putting together the gift boxes. Roy-Branigan points to Boston Honey Company Wildflower Honey, which has a jar of locally made honey in each box. Honey was a commonly used sweetener in the 1700s because sugar was heavily taxed and hard to come by in the colonies.
Inclusion in the gift boxes is an easy way for small businesses to access customers.
“If you’re a baker and you’re trying to get your cookies on the market, you might not be able to get into Whole Foods, but you can get into one of our boxes,” says Roy-Branigan.
But the gift boxes can also have a larger impact. Last year the woman-owned and operated baking company Big Little Pies was included in the box. One of the boxes made its way to Global Partners, a Boston-born energy company, and now the pies are sold at their fuel station markets along the east coast.
The proceeds from the holiday gift boxes, which are $90 apiece, will go back into the nonprofit to be used to continue running current programs and to purchase new equipment for the businesses. CommonWealth Kitchen provides commercial kitchen space to small-batch commercial food businesses in Greater Boston, as well as assistance with marketing, licensing and business structure.
“Having supportive spaces for small food-based businesses is especially critical because the margins are often especially thin,” said Roy-Branigan. “And with the gift boxes we all benefit from the deliciousness.”
ON THE WEB
Learn more at cwk250.org
