Sunnyside Shines
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I MARCH 2020 31
both English and Spanish and Executive
Director Jaime-Faye Bean noted that
about 20 percent of the applications
were submitted in Spanish.
“We’ve been very intentional over the
past three years in developing a staff that
is multilingual and culturally competent to
reflect our diverse community. The fact
that we had this portion of applications
submitted in Spanish was a reassur-ing
sign that we’ve been successful in
widening our circle of engagement with
our local small businesses,” said Bean.
The first round of Business Assistance
MicroGrants also includes one ‘neigh-borhood
entrepreneur’ awardee. The
awardee, Ora by Tangni, a startup floral
designer, had been a featured vendor in
Sunnyside Shines’ Plaza Pop Up Market
program in 2019 and is preparing to
open their first storefront in Sunnyside.
“We’ve integrated neighborhood entre-preneurs
and microbusinesses into some
of our programming in recent years,” said
Bean. “We want to see our neighborhood
entrepreneurs grow, thrive, and contribute
to a vibrant Sunnyside, and to be able to
support one of them through the transi-tion
to a storefront is extremely gratifying.”
Another grantee, Go Natural Health
Foods & Juice Bar, has struggled with
aging equipment after the current owners
purchased the business in 2018 after
having worked at the business for 12
years. The Go Natural owners have been
working closely with Sunnyside Shines
staff and ConEdison to implement free
lighting energy upgrades in the store, at
a projected savings of several thousand
dollars a year; the Business Assistance
MicroGrant will help them purchase a new
refrigerator to replace an old appliance that
is no longer reliable, and costly to repair.
“We were really happy when Sunnyside
Shines connected us with the free energy
upgrades program — every dollar counts
and with a business like ours, energy us-age
is a sizable expense. Learning that
we also received the microgrant was icing
on the cake — we are saving money, up-grading
our lighting and refrigeration and
converting to lighting and appliances that
are much more eco-friendly and consistent
with our brand,” said owner Pari Rana.
Other grantees are receiving Mi-croGrants
that will allow them to add
espresso drinks or cold pressed juices
to their menu, purchase equipment and
supplies to enhance an after-school pro-gram,
or install lighting on their storefront
to provide enhanced visibility. The full list
of grantees is available on Sunnyside
Shines’ website at www.sunnysideshines.
org/news.
Businesses that applied for Mi-croGrants
were also asked if they
would be interested in learning more
about the opportunity to apply for
interest-free business loans of up to
$10,000 through Sunnyside Shines’
new partnership with the Kiva crowd-funding
platform. About two-thirds
of microgrants applicants responded
positively; Sunnyside Shines is working
with these applicants to further as-sess
their interest in the program. The
organization will release the names of
their first round of sponsored neigh-borhood
Kiva loan applicants later this
spring, giving neighborhood residents
an opportunity to crowdfund the small
business loans.
Bean notes that selection of grantees
was conducted via a selection panel com-prised
of members of Sunnyside Shines’
new Community Advisory Committee.
“Our Committee is comprised of pas-sionate,
involved neighborhood residents
who reflect the diversity of our neigh-borhood.
Their collective expertise and
deep connection to the community was
instrumental in helping evaluate the many
great applications we received for this
program, and helped ensure a trans-parent
and objective decision-making
process,” she said.
MicroGrant funds must be expended
by awardees by June 30, 2020. A final
report will be due to Sunnyside Shines
on use of the funds, along with receipts
substantiating expenditures.
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