One day, Bread and Butter Shoppe owner Valour Cobbins stumbled across an ad for the Coalition to Back Black Business grant while scrolling through Facebook. Though she identifies as someone who is “not a social-media person,” Cobbins decided to apply for the grant after seeing it in her feed multiple times. The process felt quick and easy compared to other applications she had filled out in the past, she said.
The entrepreneur opened the Bread and Butter Shoppe in Greenwood, Miss., in 2021 during the height of the pandemic, though its foundation started in 2015 as an e-commerce gourmet-food line. The business serves freshly made sandwiches, salads, wraps, smoothies and other wellness products and aspires to redefine soul food.
“We define soul food as good food that satisfies both the body and the soul,” the business owner said. “Right now, we are primarily a lunch spot, but we do offer dinner a couple days of the week.”
The Mississippi native was familiar with Greenwood because her former husband lived and worked there for many years. She lived in Little Rock, Ark., for seven years before moving to Greenwood herself. As a winemaker, she remembered a building in Greenwood that used to be a winery, so when she discovered that it was for sale, she bought it.
“I came initially to reopen that winery, and that’s kind of how the Bread and Butter Shoppe was born,” Cobbins explained. “We were looking for a way to generate revenue until we could get wine going and ready for sale. But it just took on a life of its own. And instead of fermenting wine, we ferment something called kombucha, which is a fermented black tea.”
Bread and Butter Shoppe owner and grant recipient Valour Cobbins would not still be in operation had Cobbins not received grant money from Coalition to Back Black Businesses, financial assistance that went toward paying her lease. Photo courtesy Optimum
Cobbins went about her business until she received an email inviting her to attend a call for all of the grant recipients. She had missed the first email that