Community Corner
Crain's New York Reports On 'Buy Local East Harlem'
Buy Local East Harlem is a two-year-old program that encourages residents and companies to spend dollars close to home.
Posted by Angel M | February 3, 2020
Judith Messina, Crain’s New York Business, January 30, 2020
Find out what's happening in Harlemfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Landing a piece of business from Metropolitan Hospital Center was a coup for Rodney Mendez, founder and CEO of ThinkBigData, an East Harlem digital marketing firm.
It might not have happened at all were it not for Buy Local East Harlem, a two-year-old program run by Union Settlement and the East Harlem Community Alliance that encourages residents and companies to spend dollars close to home.
Find out what's happening in Harlemfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
To be sure, it’s never easy for a small business to find customers. But getting work from big institutions like Metropolitan can be next to impossible.
“I never knew how to get into the [procurement] process,” Mendez said. “With Buy Local, we sit at the table with the hospital, and they bring in their procurement people, [who] listen to your pitch. Otherwise, it might have taken months and years.”
Read the full story at Crain's New York
This press release was produced by Manhattan Community Board 11. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
