Page 37 - BusinessWest February 6, 2023

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Burke
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Vision Statement
In 2017, Burke joined the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving as senior Community Impact officer, a position with a broad job description, one that includ- ed everything from work creating career pathways to efforts promote civic engagement through grants and training to increase voter engagement and participa- tion in the 2020 Census.
In September 2020, she became director of Com- munity Impact Grantmaking, leading the foundation’s strategic grantmaking — there was an annual budget of $25 million to $30 million — to advance equitable economic mobility and address systemic racism in Greater Hartford.
“During my time there, we announced a new stra- tegic focus on dismantling structural racism and pro- moting more equitable economic and social mobility,” she explained. “And while that work is by no means easy, it’s incredibly important, and I spent the past few years with a great team trying to figure out how to make that happen.”
Not long after Zobel announced that she would be stepping down from her position, Burke received a call from a search firm to gauge her interest in the position.
It was quite high, she said, and for all the reasons she mentioned earlier — from the agency’s trans- parency with its goals and plans for the future, as evidenced by the uncovered windows facing Bridge Street, to its rapid and highly effective response to COVID, marked by a deep commitment to helping the region’s struggling nonprofits, along with many other successful programs in realms ranging from the arts to education.
Summing it all up, Burke said that, while she loved her work with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the only thing she might like more is a chance to similar work closer to her home, some- thing this opportunity at the Community Foundation
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provided her.
Still, while those on the other side of the inter-
view table had questions for her, she had some for them, and the answers — especially with regard to a willingness to broaden efforts in the realm of equity — would ultimately determine whether this would be the right fit for her.
“I wasn’t sure where they were in terms of their own strategic vision to promote equity and opportu- nity,” she explained. “And I know that when you take on work like that, it’s important that everyone has bought in, feels that it’s important, and sees the value in that work.
“You never have a situation where every stakehold- er is 100% all in from the very beginning,” she went on. “But from other areas of my work, I’ve seen what happens when there is great resistance, and it makes it really, really hard. I didn’t know if there was resis- tance, but I also didn’t know how much buy-in there was. So in many of my early conversations, I really tried to get a sense — ‘is there a serious commitment to moving this forward?’ And I got a resounding ‘yes’ from everyone I spoke to.
“It was clear that the commitment runs deep,” she continued. “And that excited me.”
Elaborating, she noted that, while Greater Hart- ford and Greater Springfield are different in some respects, they are similar in most, especially when it comes to disparities that exist between the urban cen- ters and the more rural and suburban areas, and the manner in which those inequities impact opportunity.
“When everyone has an opportunity to fulfill their own potential, I think everyone wins,” she went on. “When people are held back due to the circumstanc- es of their birth, I think everyone loses.”
Burke started at the Community Foundation on Jan. 18, the day of a scheduled board meeting. She joked that this would be the first and only time she would be at such a meeting with the primary mission of simply watching and listening.
“We’re not in this business to get rich — we never were. But the satisfaction you get from putting out a good product is more rewarding to me than money.”
sion planning — having the next generations on board — provides needed stability.
“The exciting part about having a family business is that, when you have someone that’s interested as much as Bill and I have been in this business for many years ... it’s scary,” she said. “But to know you have a new group of young guys who are in the family who want to take over — and to see the ideas coming out of them and the energy that comes out of them — that’s amazing.”
Will and Warren McKinstry, the sons of Bill and Nicole, are key contributors to the recent growth of the family business. They are actively in the process of taking over — they became co-owners over the past year — and are striving to take the business to the next level.
After discussing the business plan and how the business will operate, the family decided to add the roadside market. Will and Bill tend the 250-acre farm,
Although she still has a lot of that to do in general, and with a number of different constituencies, she noted that she has already embarked on what she calls a “listening tour.”
Its underlying goal, as she stated earlier, is to enable her to learn about the region and the issues facing those living and working here and to generate some momentum on the broad issue of economic and social mobility and making it more equitable.
“We don’t plan to change our broader strategic vision — I think it’s a great vision,” she said. “And pro- moting equity and opportunity is not something that’s going to happen overnight; I think there’s a huge com- mitment to that, and I was brought on to help figure out how to make sure we can operationalize that as effectively as possible.
“I have to listen,” she said in conclusion, “and make sure I’m building on what’s already happening here that’s great.”
Bottom Line
When asked what she likes to do when she’s not working, Burke offered a hearty laugh as she said, “take walks in urban areas.”
She also likes to hike in more rural settings, par- take in yoga, be a good ‘dog aunt,’ and keep up with friends scattered across the region and around the world.
What she really likes, though, is to work with oth- ers to address what she called “seemingly intractable problems” — meaning everything from inhumane weapons to access to healthcare and education for LGBTQ+ residents of Nicaragua to food insecurity for residents of Greater Hartford.
Throughout her long career, it has been her mis- sion to take doors and open them wider to enable more to pass through. With her latest assignment with CFWM, the setting has changed, but that mis- sion hasn’t. BW
and Warren and Nicole manage the store.
Amid rising inflation and soaring costs of doing
business, Nicole told BusinessWest that her youngest son, Warren, tries “very hard” to keep prices at the market as low as possible. But it’s not always easy, especially for off-season products, and with the price of fuel constantly fluctuating.
Bill McKinstry put the farm’s operating philosophy and its reason for being in perspective, noting that “we’re not in this business to get rich — we never were. But the satisfaction you get from putting out a good product is more rewarding to me than money.”
Bottom Line
All those we spoke with said Chicopee is an ideal community to run a small business; the residents and municipal leaders are supportive and want to see the proverbial ‘small guys’ thriving like they were before the pandemic.
The city’s business community showed continued resilience and strength in 2022, and there is a sense of momentum heading into the new year.
“I tell many people this ... you can invest in the stock market, or you can invest in something real like the city of Chicopee,” Vieau said. “If you want an opportunity to see dividends on your money, the city of Chicopee is the place to be.” BW
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Chicopee
staple since 1908, when Willard McKinstry opened up a roadside market wagon and started selling fruits and vegetables.
The farm, now currently being operated by the sev- enth and eighth generations of the McKinstry family, has evolved steadily over time.
“My grandfather switched over to vegetables in 1908; his brother took over the chicken part of it,” said Bill McKinstry, sixth-generation farmer and co- owner of McKinstry Farm and Market Garden, adding that the farm moved to its current location on McKin- stry Road in 1938 due to repeated flooding.
McKinstry Farm and Market Garden has grown from a roadside fruit and vegetable stand to a robust market since the start of the pandemic. It sells a variety of fruits and vegetables — blueberries, straw- berries, beans, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, water- melon, lettuce, pumpkins, and more — and recently added homemade ice cream, dill pickles, and donuts to the list of options. The market also sells fresh pro- duce by local farmers of all kinds, like fresh eggs, honey, plants, fresh baked goods, and cheese.
But the McKinstrys are best known for their corn; they harvest 40 to 50 different varieties, including all- yellow, all-white, and mostly yellow and white.
Despite the economy, COVID, and other challeng- es, the operation is thriving, said Nicole McKinstry, co-owner of the farm and market, adding that succes-
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