A Montpelier business owner from Waitsfield recently reopened her shop, Vermont Dog Eats, in downtown Montpelier. In early July, severe rain and flooding damaged the space and nearly everything inside.
Elisa Garcia Rey has been making and packaging organic dog treats from her downtown Montpelier space since 2022. Her business, now in its 11th year, sources local ingredients and has mainly focused on filling wholesale accounts. In May, just six weeks before the flooding, she started retail sales from her store front at Dog Eats Vermont.
When central Vermont saw several months’ worth of rain in a matter of two days, Garcia Rey’s space was flooded with up to 3 feet of water. She lost kitchen equipment, packaging, ingredients, furniture, and other inventory. The flooring and much of the walls were destroyed.
Garcia Rey said that the first few weeks of cleanup in Montpelier were devastating – “not only for me and my business personally, but it was harder seeing the devastation all around us.”
“We were walking around Montpelier and seeing piles of debris – everyone’s’ livelihoods on the sidewalks.” But, she said that the destruction paired with an outpouring of support from both the Montpelier and Mad River Valley (MRV) communities created “a weird mix of emotions.”
MRV residents and friends offered to donate proceeds from the sales of their products and services, she said, and someone established a Go Fund Me campaign that quickly raised $11,000. There was, she said, “an enormous amount of love, generosity and kindness.”
Vermont Dog Eats was also able to get grants totaling $18,000 from the Montpelier Strong Recovery Fund – money raised by Vermont Alive and the Montpelier Foundation in order to support downtown businesses. And the business has an application pending with the state’s Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP) – a $20 million grant program for businesses and nonprofits that suffered physical damages from flooding since July 7, 2023, created by the Department of Economic Development.
Garcia Rey said that with funding, “everybody’s piecing it together as best they can.” She was able to start baking in her space on August 11 and opened her retail store this past Saturday, September 23.
She added that while these grants are helpful with replacing lost equipment and restoring spaces more generally, they do not address that business owners have lost and continue to lose revenue before re-opening.
For that reason, Garcia Rey said that financial support is still a necessity, as is time to rebuild. She pointed to the importance of sustained public support and awareness as rebuild efforts in downtown Montpelier are still in the early stages.
Dog Eats Vermont is located at 5 East State Street in Montpelier.
