A small business is making a big difference.
Like many mom-and-pop shops, Sweet Harmony Café and Bakery in Middletown took a big hit with the pandemic. A partnership with Eversource now has the owners serving up hundreds of meals to crews during storms, helming them both through the tough times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you can dream it, Sweet Harmony co-owner Trang Tran can make it.
"This is mozzarella cheese, the cheese right here is melting,” she said while working on a homemade crepe. "Everything is made to order so it's nice and fresh."
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The menu at Sweet Harmony Café and Bakery, located on Main Street, is huge.
"It's a grilled cheese lover's dream!” Tran said, while perfecting a buffalo chicken grilled cheese on Texas Toast.
However, when the pandemic started in 2020, foot traffic slowed dramatically, and so did business.
"There were no customers, there were no people,” Laura Conley, co-owner, said. “We were very scared. Rent comes every month, electric bill comes every month, you know taxes come."
That’s when the two co-owners, who are also sisters, stepped up a partnership with Eversource Energy.
"It was a two-way street. There was a need on their end, and there was a need on our end,” Christa Simmons, Eversource’s sourcing agent, said.
Simmons said at the same time, Eversource was struggling to contract food service for their crews who were working for days to restore the grid after big storms.
"We have demanding requirements!” Simmons said. “I'm talking about food that's required at 5 a.m., breakfast, and lunch. And we're not talking about 10 people, we're talking about 100 plus."
They turned to Sweet Harmony to meet the need.
"There have been days we didn't, it has been 72 hours, we didn't sleep. So they're on storm duty, we're on storm duty,” Conley said.
In 2021, local businesses provided nearly 72,000 meals for Eversource. The owners of Sweet Harmony said this has meant sustaining their business throughout the pandemic.
“They've certainly helped us because we, you know, we're open, and we never had to close,” Conley said.
“When you support a small, Black business, it's somebody's dream,” Simmons said.
Even before the pandemic, Conley said, Black business owners faced unique obstacles.
"Not that every other business doesn't suffer, but Black-owned businesses, historically have not had the same opportunities that other businesses have. We don't get the same opportunities for loans or grants, things just don't happen like that for us,” she said.
Despite the heightened challenges, their continued success brings the sisters something sweet to celebrate.
"Having a Black-owned business in this day and age, living out COVID, is actually quite a feat,” Conley said. “I mean, I'm really feeling blessed by the opportunity, everything that we've gone through, and still surviving."
