A Better Chocolate, a Stronger Business 

After watching family members manage diabetes and celiac disease, Keshia Mills saw how difficult it was to find sweets they could safely enjoy. Many products marketed as sugar-free still used ingredients that her family preferred to avoid.

So she decided to make her own.

She founded Winter Grace Sugar- Free Chocolates to create treats for people with diabetes, celiac disease, food allergies, and others with specialized dietary needs. Unlike many sugar-free chocolates, Winter Grace products are sweetened exclusively with 100% organic monk fruit and contain no sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners.

As her business grew, Keshia started looking for ways to make it stronger. This past June, she was one of 19 small business owners to graduate from The Center’s Main Street Goes Green (MSGG) Accelerator.

MSGG helps small businesses become more sustainable and better prepared for disruptions through expert training, one-on-one technical assistance, and grant funding to put those improvements into practice.

Like many home-based businesses, Keshia wasn’t prepared for a major disruption. There was no evacuation plan, no backup power for chocolate production during outages, and few of the supplies needed to keep the business operating if disaster struck.

Working with her MSGG advisor, Keshia developed an emergency preparedness plan and used a $1,000 supply grant to purchase fire extinguishers, a first aid kit, and other emergency equipment. She also learned to think differently about risk, from carrying the right insurance for a home-based business to improving air quality and choosing safer cleaning products.

By the end of the program, Keshia had addressed each of those areas and earned Green Business Certification, becoming one of only two home-based businesses in the cohort to achieve the distinction. Looking back, she says the program changed how she thinks about running a business.

“The program helped me build the safety net I didn’t even know I needed. It pointed out gaps I never would have thought about. And having the $1,000 supply grant meant I could make those improvements without paying for them out of my own pocket.”

Now Keshia is focused on growing Winter Grace Sugar- Free Chocolates and reaching more people who are looking for healthier, better-tasting chocolate options that meet their dietary needs.

Main Street Goes Green is powered by The Center by Lendistry and supported by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Columbia Bank, and First Citizens Bank.