GREENFIELD — Inmates and formerly incarcerated people will have a chance to get involved in food production while building entrepreneurial skills at the Franklin County Community Development Corporation (CDC), thanks to a $94,000 state grant.

The grant, provided by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, provides funding for the CDC and its Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center to further develop its working community of formerly incarcerated people, which has been growing since 2015. The grant comes from the office’s Community Empowerment and Reinvestment Grant Program.

In the past, the CDC and food processing center have worked with both the Franklin and Hampshire county houses of correction and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Kimball House Program. The grant is expected to bolster those existing partnerships while also fostering new partnerships with Stone Soup Cafe’s Culinary Institute, Working Fields and Community Action Pioneer Valley.

“This is more formalizing the program and coming up with goals,” said Liz Buxton, the food processing center’s director of operations. “This brings it all together. … It’s definitely going to help us grow a little more.”

The grant will fund two additional staff members at the food processing center through June 2023, with potential for full-time employment after that; support the implementation of entrepreneurial and food production workshops at the Franklin and Hampshire county houses of correction; allow the food processing center to serve as an internship site for Stone Soup Cafe’s Culinary Institute; and launch a two-day food safety and product development course for formerly incarcerated individuals alongside the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Food Science Extension team.

CDC Executive Director John Waite said expanding the program will provide more opportunities for people to reenter the workforce and get back on their feet after incarceration. A workplace, he said, provides stability in someone’s life, especially when being released from jail can sometimes be a chaotic situation.

Buxton agreed and said people are able to be more successful reintegrating themselves into the community if they get a job and income. Her personal mission and the CDC’s goal, she added, is to help people lead successful lives, while also stimulating the local economy.

“Being able to secure a job and housing after you’re released and get back on your feet is very important,” Buxton said. “So many of them just can’t get jobs; people just aren’t interested in working with them. My motto is, ‘I don’t really care what you’ve done, I care where you are now and where you want to be and who you want to become.’”

With existing framework already in place, Waite said this program is ready to expand right away.

“We can jump right in, we don’t have to do any startup,” Waite said. “It’s great (that the state) is seeing the economic value of getting a stronger workforce and looking at incarcerated folks.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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