Page 38 - BusinessWest April 3, 2023

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Greenfield
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downtown, as well as attractions ranging from Green- field Garden Cinemas, which recently celebrated its 94th birthday, to Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center.
The owners of Greenspace Co-work, located upstairs from Hawks & Reed, have been bringing local businesses together at a monthly event called Business Breakdown, and Deane has been impressed with what they’re saying.
“The Business Breakdowns are so interesting; we’re hearing how many people not originally from this area chose to start a business in Greenfield because there are so many resources available — partnerships with the chamber and the Franklin County CDC and the city — and how glad they are that they did choose Greenfield.
“Greenfield is the seat of Franklin County,” she added. “When Greenfield does well, all of Frank-
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lin County does well. So it’s good to see Greenfield making such a concerted effort to revitalize the downtown.”
Partners in Progress
With technical and financial assistance and other resources provided to businesses through agencies like the CDC, Common Capital, the chamber, and oth- ers, and workforce-development efforts at Greenfield Community College, Franklin County benefits strong- ly from a culture of partnership, Deane said.
“It feels like there’s this collective effort to really build on the partnerships; it’s one of the things Frank- lin County generally does very well,” she explained. “Working through the pandemic, we had effective partnerships, and I’m really seeing those grow as we’re able to share resources and think more strate-
insecure, that is a systemic issue. And that requires systemic solutions. Too often, we focus on individual- ized solutions when it comes to this issue.”
McGovern agreed that fighting hunger and improv- ing nutrition is a battle that can, and should, be waged on all levels — federal, state, and local.
“There are things that can be done at the local level — things like expanding access to culturally appropriate cooking classes, bringing gardens and hydroponics to every school, and more robust food- recovery partnerships. All of this is going to require close collaboration.”
Menu of Activity
On the state level, myriad bills have been filed recently relating to nutrition, hunger, and agriculture: “An Act Relative to Universal School Meals,” “An Act to Promote Food Literacy,” “An Act Protecting Our Soil and Farms from PFAS Contamination,” “An Act Strengthening Local Food Systems,” “An Act Pro-
“Along with the technology, we will
be encouraging training so everyone understands how to mitigate the risks. We all have a role to play in preventing cyberattacks.”
a time when insurance for cyberattacks could quickly help a company get back to business but after years of increasing claims, that has changed.
“There is a new landscape for cybersecurity insur- ance companies,” Whalley said. “Companies are now more stringent on eligibility to get cyberinsurance.”
Before selling a cybersecurity policy, Christianson added, insurers want to know that a business has
gically about the next generation of Greenfield and what the city should look like.”
That said, “I’ve been really impressed with the energy and momentum I’m seeing in Greenfield,” she told BusinessWest. “We’ve seen the city of Greenfield creating an environment more attractive to business- es, while simultaneously supporting the outstanding businesses we already have to make sure we’re ensur- ing their success.”
That’s Wedegartner’s goal too, of course, even as she asks people for patience as all the visible signs of progress come together downtown over the next few years, from the new library and fire station to new housing and a more walkable city center.
“I’m fond of saying that, in five years, you’re not going to recognize Main Street,” she told Business- West. “It’s going to be so different and so much more vital in so many ways. But it’s going to take time.” BW
moting Equity in Agriculture,” “An Act Relative to an Agricultural Healthy Incentives Program,” “An Act Supporting the Commonwealth’s Food System,” “An Act Encouraging the Donation of Food to Persons in Need,” “An Act Establishing the Massachusetts Hun- ger-free Campus Initiative” ... the list goes on.
Comerford said those who organized the March 17 briefing with McGovern wanted participants to be inspired by the White House’s 2030 hunger goals, tackle diet-related diseases like hypertension and obesity in the Commonwealth, and strengthen the region’s food system and farms in the process.
“We also want to help participants take away con- crete and timely action steps around critical budget priorities and policy proposals that are going to move the Commonwealth boldly toward ending hunger in just a handful of years.” BW
built several layers of protection into its systems. “Just like an onion has layers, an effective security system also has layers to make it harder to penetrate
a company’s data,” he explained. “If one layer gets defeated, there’s another one right behind it to stop a potential breach.”
The date and other information about this fall’s conference will be announced soon, but the focus will be on how to create those layers of protection with technology and a more educated human element.
“Along with the technology, we will be encouraging training so everyone understands how to mitigate the risks,” Christianson said. “We all have a role to play in preventing cyberattacks.” BW
Hunger
Erin McAleer, president of Project Bread, an anti- hunger nonprofit based in Boston, identified five pillars to a statewide strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health: increasing access and improving quality of child-nutrition programs, increasing access and affordability of food for all, integrating food access into healthcare, strengthening and integrating the local food system, and ensuring economic stability and promoting economic opportunities to address the root causes of hunger.
“I never imagined I would be sitting in a room with the president of the United States, and certainly never imagined I would be sitting in the room when he expressed that what I went through my childhood was unacceptable — that food insecurity is unacceptable,” McAleer said.
“What I really appreciated about the plan that was put together by the White House is the focus on sys- temic solutions,” she went on. “When 21% of families in Massachusetts are food-insecure and 33% of the Black and Latino families in Massachusetts are food-
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Cyber
calls “mission-critical accounts,” such as banks, credit cards, and cell-phone accounts, and make sure each password is unique and at least 12 to 15 characters long.
All three cybersecurity experts told BusinessWest no one is too small to be a target for cybercriminals.
“Every one of the victims I’ve worked with felt they didn’t fit the victim profile,” Augenbaum said. “Anyone who thinks they are immune because they are a small business increases their chances of joining the list of small businesses that have been victimized.”
Christianson agreed, and gave an example of someone who owns a pizza shop. “That person might think they are only in the pizza business, so what could happen? Well, they most likely process credit-card transactions, and that’s a gold mine to a cybercriminal.”
He added that it’s important for a business owner to consider what is unique in their environment that makes them vulnerable to a cyberattack. There was
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