During the pandemic lockdown, I was making soap as a way to keep my anxiety at bay. I ended up with over 1000 bars of soap, bath bombs, salts, hair balm, body butter, and laundry detergent products I use myself.

I realized that I could not give it all away and that I enjoyed making environmentally sustainable products that reduced manufacturing impacts on our ecology.

At the time, I was also completing my master’s in Community Development, which taught me that small businesses could produce resilient supply chains in the local economy. So, I started selling my handcrafted products at a Friday morning farmers market. The experience was amazing. Community Markets allow us to pay people instead of corporations while creating a local supply of products. If we invest our time, money, and efforts into people, our community will benefit 100-fold. I enjoyed sharing my purpose to bring resilience and sustainability and demonstrate an economic opportunity through small handcraft/homemade businesses.