Investing in Wisconsin’s Small Businesses

Opening in April of 2012, Clock Shadow Creamery is located in the Milwaukee neighborhood of Walker’s Point, just a few blocks north of the world-famous Rockwell clock tower. While the local cheese factory employs just six people, this small business has big shoes to fill. Clock Shadow Creamery was created by the founders of Cedar Grove Cheese, one of Wisconsin’s oldest cheese producers.

By producing amazingly fresh, local cheese, their mission is to connect local farmers’ choices, with their customer’s values. Unfortunately, many small businesses didn’t make it through the Covid economy and many are still recovering. Signed into law in March 2021, The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was designed to facilitate the rebuilding of the economy from the devastating effects of 2020. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin was given ARPA funding to invest in small, Wisconsin businesses like Clock Shadow Creamery. This way, both small businesses and people facing hunger can take steps towards recovery.

“Covid was a huge challenge for our business,” explains Bob Wills, founder of Clock Shadow Creamery. “We primarily serve local restaurants, breweries, and farmers’ markets. We also had a lot of business from tourists, and we benefit from events and conventions. Nearly all of these outlets vanished quickly. We stopped production for several months and continued to provide cheese from inventory for local customers at rock bottom prices. We were very fortunate to team up with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin to help us while the other outlets are rebuilding.”

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is able to purchase cheese and cheese curds from Clock Shadow creamery with ARPA dollars. The cheese is then given to partner pantries in the area that will get the fresh product to people facing hunger.

While inflation is evident to us all at the gas pump, small businesses are forced to hike up their prices as well. “High ingredient, packaging, and cleaning material costs have also been a challenge, but our customers have been pretty understanding about the need to pass some of those costs on. The higher food costs have been a greater challenge for customers on limited budgets than they have been for us. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin has continued to sustain us too during these challenging times.”

Wisconsin will continue to rally together to overcome the obstacles of covid and the current challenges of inflation. Through The American Rescue Plan Act, partnerships like this make recovery possible. “We feel that Clock Shadow Creamery and Cedar Grove Cheese are helping provide excellent quality food at the lowest pricing we can sustain,” says Bob. “We are pleased to have a partner such as Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin that is able to efficiently get this cheese to the people who can benefit the most.”

Read about other ways Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is supporting small businesses and farmers with ARPA funding here.