Chocolate Spoon Coffee House Opening Celebrated

Celebrating the opening of the Chocolate Spoon Coffee House were (l.) City Councilmembers Eric Gioia and (r.) Peter Vallone Jr., Chocolate Spoon Coffee House owners Odette Bernardes and Patricia Faria, Rebecca Lurie of the Consortium for Worker Education and Brian Gurski of the Small Business Development Center at LaGuardia Community College.

City Councilmembers Eric Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr. cut a ribbon to celebrate the opening of the Chocolate Spoon Coffee House, 37- 03 31st Ave., Astoria, with owners Odette Bernardes and Patricia Faria last Friday, February 8. They were joined at the 11 a.m. event by representatives from the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) and the LaGuardia Community College Small Business Development Center, where the café owners, both Brazilian immigrants, received entrepreneurship training that allowed them to achieve their dream of opening a new business. The Chocolate Spoon actually opened approximately one month earlier; the February 8 ceremonies celebrated the entrepreneurship and business startup programs that fostered the establishing of the business.

Bernardes, a mother of two, always wanted to open her own food-related business in Astoria. She successfully completed a baking class at the CWE Artisan Baking Center, which gave her a better understanding of proportions and mass production, and later registered in the Entrepreneurship Workshop conducted in partnership with the LaGuardia Community College Small Business Development Center to get a better idea of the risks and requirement that her own business would demand.

Faria was a financial advisor for a Brazilian bank, but in September 2006 decided to forego the financial world and instead open a café. She and Bernardes met through a mutual friend and found both had children attending the same elementary school. Faria quit her job and also enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Workshop at the Artisan Baking Center.

The Artisan Baking Center, located at 36- 46 37th St., Long Island City, has been open since 2001 and offers an array of classes, including cooking and baking classes that emphasize entry-level job training as well as advanced skill development. The Center teamed up with nearby LaGuardia Community College to offer entrepreneurship workshops to teach bakers and other graduates of the center about starting a business, including product development, legal structures and tax issues, insurance and product liability, hiring and managing employees, applying for and getting loans and writing a business plan.

"CWE has been proud to be a part of a process that shepherds new entrepreneurs into the economy," Consortium for Worker Education Director of Workforce Development Rebecca Lurie said. "With every new business we not only see a business owner succeed, but benefit from the new jobs the business brings. When an entrepreneur succeeds, the city's workforce grows. This is thanks to our joint efforts with the City Council and multiple community organizations in helping New Yorkers find jobs."

"All of us are here to celebrate the fulfillment of the goals of these two entrepreneurs to open this beautiful bakery," LaGuardia Community College Small Business Development Center Director Brian Gurski said. "We celebrate their achievement and affirm the commitment of the CWE, Mi Kitchen, Su Kitchen, the SBDC and our local representatives to support the growth of the business community in New York City."

The Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) is a private, non-profit agency that provides a wide array of employment, training, and education services to 90,000 New York City workers annually, including incumbent union members, new Americans and dislocated workers.

The New York state Small Business Development Center (NYS SBDC) is administered by the State University of New York and funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the state of New York and host campuses. Through 23 campus-based regional centers, such as that at LaGuardia Community College, and 29 outreach offices, the NYS SBDC applies the resources of university, private sector and government to solve business problems and foster entrepreneurship. The SBDC emphasizes counseling and training services to women, veterans, people with special needs, and minority clients.

The training programs from which Bernardes and Faria benefited were funded by the council's NYC Works and Jobs to Build On initiatives. NYCWorks, launched in March 2006, involves 82 community-based organizations serving high-need neighborhoods in all five boroughs. Programs such as the Jobs to Build On initiative demonstrate creative mechanisms being implemented to empower low-income adults to make career advancements and achieve economic security.