Brightwood Development Corporation Receives Grant From the City of Mayaguez & EDA Recognition for Promoting Healthy Food Businesses in Puerto Rico

Brightwood Development Corporation recently issued a press release announcing an additional grant from the City of Mayaguez to launch the Puerto Rico Healthy Foods Business Initiative and complement its multiple HHS/OCS awards used to develop the Western Food Agro Processing Center in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

BRIGHTWOOD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE CITY OF MAYAGUEZ TO PROMOTE HEALTHY FOODS BUSINESSES IN PUERTO RICO 

December 3, 2012 —Brightwood Development Corporation, a non-profit active in small business development in the 18 towns of the Porta del Sol region of western Puerto Rico, has received a $25,000 grant from the Municipality of Mayaguez to purchase vehicles for delivery of healthy foods produced at BDC’s Food and Agro Processing Center.

“We are happy to have Brightwood Development Corporation as part of the effort to bring businesses and jobs to the Mayaguez area”, said Mayor Jose Guillermo Rodriguez in presenting the $25,000 check to representatives of BDC.

The grant from the City of Mayaguez complements the $800,000 grant recently awarded to BDC by the Office of Community Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to launch the Puerto Rico Healthy Foods Business Initiative. The PRHFBI will establish mobile and semi-mobile healthy foods retail outlets in food deserts and other low-income communities in Western Pue1to Rico. The grant builds on an earlier $800,000 HHS grant awarded to BDC to establish the Western Food and Agro Processing Center (FAPC) in Mayaguez, which serves as an accelerator for expanding healthy foods production businesses; on a$430,000 HHS Job Opportunities for Low Income Individuals (JOLI) grant to create jobs in western Puerto Rico; and on a $300,000 grant from EDA which resulted in the development of a Regional Economic Development Strategy for Porta del Sol (REDIS 2014). Partners for Community (PfC), the non-profit parent organization of BDC, has invested over $200,000 of its own discretionary fund in the initiative, and PfC affiliate New England Farm Workers’ Council purchased the building that houses the F APC, thereby assuring a stable base of operations for the project.

“We have a long-term commitment to the well being of Puerto Rico” said Heriberto Flores, Chairman of BDC and PfC.

PfC affiliate Corporation for Public Management (CPM) also operates a contract from the Puerto Rico Depmtment of the Family to provide case management for Transitional Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) clients in Mayaguez and San German, Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rico operations of PfC, BDC, and CPM are headquartered at the historic Casa Mamery building on Calle Mendez Vigo in Mayaguez, and are led by Luis Valderrama, PfC Vice President.