This year’s Bon Secours SEED program cohort. (Kristine and Co Photography)
After 15 years of supporting East End businesses, a Bon Secours economic development program has added another section of the city to its coverage area.
The health system’s Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development, or SEED, program, which provides grants to East End-based small businesses, was recently expanded to include the Shockoe Bottom area. That adds to the Nine Mile Road and 25th Street corridor in Church Hill the program has historically operated in and the Fulton area it expanded to a few years ago.
And this week, a new round of grants was awarded to the program’s expanded cohort. SEED’s annual awards show was held Wednesday at Robinson Theater in Church Hill. Grants were distributed there to 12 small businesses, the program’s largest-ever class.
Bon Secours and Capital One provide funding for the program. Local business advocacy group InUnison is the fund administrator.
“SEED now covers the Fulton neighborhood and Shockoe Bottom,” Becky Clay Christensen, Bon Secours Richmond’s executive director of community health, said at the awards show. “This means 100% coverage of the 7th District of the City of Richmond.”
Businesses awarded this week were Bel Walter Farm, Bono’s Caribbean, Fat Rabbit Cakes, Glue Craft Studio, Honey Baked Bee, Leek & Thistle, Luminary Hair Co., RFCC Academy, Richmond Slingshots, Rollin Eatz, Top Stitch Mending and Wild Earth Fermentation. Leek & Thistle is the only Shockoe Bottom business in this year’s cohort, with the hopes to expand that further next year, a Bon Secours representative told BizSense.
Becky Clay Christensen, the executive director of community health for Bon Secours Richmond, speaks at the annual SEED program awards. (Kristine and Co Photography)
The latest round of grants totaled $112,000 spread across the dozen companies. Program grants can go toward anything from new equipment to a new space to signage and other projects. Grant recipients can receive from $5,000 to up to $25,000. Businesses can participate for up to three years, and must be re-accepted each time they apply.
InUnison President and CEO Nancy Thomas said Wednesday that the program received around 25 applications this year. Of the 12 businesses accepted, nine are new to the program and three are returning. Four businesses are located in Shockoe Bottom.
The SEED program previously expanded to include Manchester-based businesses in 2022, but has since exited that area because of limited application interest there. An impact study in 2024 in collaboration with the Richmond Night Market also found that the program would have a greater impact if it focused solely on the East End, Thomas told BizSense.
Shekinah Mitchell, the health system’s director of neighborhood engagement, said the program’s addition of Shockoe Bottom this year “feels historic” for the program.
“When I think about Richmond’s economic history, there’s so much that’s tied to us being the second-largest internal slave-trading hub (in the U.S.),” Mitchell said. “To say now, this is a hub for a lot of diverse groups of businesses, what would it look like to invest in ground that has such historical context in a way that is restorative and celebratory of where Richmond can go?”
Businesses interested in the SEED program submit grant proposals for projects they want to do, after which those proposals are presented to judges who select awardees. SEED participants also get to take advantage of business coaching through the program, and Thomas added that the program expanded to include financial workshops starting this year.
“So that (business owners) can not only promote and market, but build the foundational strength of their cash flow operations and really learn more about running a sustainable, profitable business,” she said.
Owners from each business accepted their awards at Wednesday’s event, where the crowd learned how they would be using the funds.
Bono’s Caribbean, a Fulton-based food truck business and three-time SEED grant recipient, told BizSense that it would be using the funds toward its first brick-and-mortar restaurant, set to open this summer. It received around $9,000 in this year’s cohort.
“(SEED) creates a source of hope in a time where funds are so tight for everyone,” said Bono’s co-owner Cortney Cornwall. “We’re going to make sure that we keep our business in the 7th District and provide resources to our community.”
2026 marks the 15th year and 14th cohort for the SEED program, which was founded in 2011 by Bon Secours.
Since its founding, the program has awarded over $1.2 million in grants to over 60 small businesses in the area.
