U.S. Small Business Administration leader highlights growing Salem businesses during tour – Salem Reporter

Since moving to Salem in late 2020, Don Froylan’s workforce has quadrupled.

The artisan Mexican cheesemaker has 63 employees, said Lisa Ochoa, who owns the creamery on Northeast Portland Road with her husband Francisco. They’ve recently stepped up production to include evenings and weekends to meet growing demand for their cheeses.

“The growth is definitely working for us,” Ochoa said.

That growth is in part thanks to help from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Don Froylan received a loan that helped make their move to an expanded Salem facility possible.

The Ochoas hosted Isabel Casillas Guzman, the agency’s administrator, along with U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas on a creamery tour Tuesday highlighting small Salem businesses that have received loans, grants or other aid from the federal agency.

“We’re so proud,” Ochoa said of hosting the delegation. “We’re super excited.”

Guzman and Salinas also visited MAK Metals, a sheet metal manufacturer in Dallas; Chemeketa Community College’s Ag. Complex; and Sackcloth & Ashes, a seller of artisanal blankets made from recycled material that’s based in south Salem.

The blanket retailer was founded in 2014 with a social mission to donate a blanket to a local homeless shelter for every blanket sold. 

Founder Bob Dalton was inspired by his mother’s own experience with homelessness and is now encouraging customers to connect with their local homeless shelter through a scannable QR code on every box shipped out. 

“If we’re going to see change happen, it’s on a local level, and it’s identifying solutions that are actually working in local communities,” Dalton explained.

The company sold 100,000 blankets last year and benefitted from an SBA loan that helped them pay for product and expand into a larger space on Southeast Vista Road. They moved two and a half years ago from a smaller storefront on Northeast Broadway Street.

“I’m honored the SBA was a part of the story,” Guzman told Dalton during the tour.

Guzman and Salinas said they wanted to highlight the agency’s success stories and help make entrepreneurs aware of the resources available to them.

From March 2021 to March 2022, Oregonians opened 17,483 small businesses and closed 14,795, according to the administration’s most recent economic profile. Small businesses added more than 55,000 jobs statewide over that timeframe.

Salinas said one of her takeaways was the need for government help to bridge the gap between scientific research that could be helpful for businesses, especially in agriculture, and its actual implementation.

“That was a big eye opener for me,” Salinas said. “I didn’t realize that there was a gap between the research and then the actual commercialization, and how we connect that. And I think there’s work to be done there, and so I want to be helpful and part of that solution.”

Guzman said the agency has focused since the pandemic on expanding information available to business owners in multiple languages.

Francisco Ochoa told her during the creamery tour that he’s seen improvement in the business resources available in Spanish since he took over his family’s creamery.

Much of their workforce is Latino, and many are immigrants — some of whom have experience as cheesemakers in their home countries. Lisa Ochoa said she’s appreciated Salinas’ support for immigrant workers and families during her time in office.

Don Froylan is currently planning a 6,000 square foot expansion on the south side of the building to add manufacturing capacity and a large walk-in cooler.

Ochoa said she’s happy Don Froylan has played a role in the growth of Salem’s Northgate neighborhood, which she said is often written off as a part of town not worth investing in.

She said the expansion of the 45th Parallel building, with Xicha Brewing moving its brewing operations into the facility, is another example of urban development in the neighborhood.

Don Froylan recently took home the American Cheese Society’s award for best string cheese for the second year running — another point of pride for the company.

“The best string cheese in the world is Mexican string cheese and it’s made right here in Salem, Oregon,” she said.

Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.