Greenbook: A Local Guide to Chesapeake Living -Issue 11 | Page 25

“There is such a need to help these entrepreneurs who
just want to work and to provide for their families. I
formed Mango + Main in an effort to create more work
and to open new markets to producers.”
sold blue and white necklaces for an Arnold Elementary
PTA spirit wear fundraiser, she created jobs for women in
Haiti who support a local orphanage. The home isn’t for
children who don’t have parents, but rather for children
sent there by parents who aren’t able to provide for them.
“These women are making jewelry so they can feed their
children, so they can send them to school and not have
to give them up. They can make any color, any style and I
helped facilitate that while also rallying our kids around a
great product and idea.”
At this point, Mango + Main operates out of Shannon’s
dining room. “This is all new to me,” Shannon says, “but I
feel like I am building a business for other people. Its not
so I can grow in wealth. I know people are counting on me,
literally to put food in their mouth.” She’s had to learn how
to build a website, modify HTML code, create her own mar-
keting materials on a nonexistent budget, familiarize her-
self with tariff schedule codes and has spent hours learning
about customs. In the space of just a few months, business
is doing well and Shannon says she has faith that Mango
+ Main will prosper. “I‘ve been able to earn back my initial
investment so I can break even and have money to invest
for the next season. My goal was to tell my husband we
don’t have to pull any more money out of savings and that’s
where I am at.”
S
hannon is building her business on good will. On
our basic human desire to express compassion, to
make a difference. As I listen to Shannon I can’t
help but think that we in the West are naturally
generous but also cautious with our prosperity. We have
money but we want to know where it will go and what im-
pact it will have. Mango + Main is a thoughtfully founded
business that helps make a difference by creating oppor-
tunity not only here at home for entrepreneurs like Shan-
non and her local retailers, but also abroad where there is
a valid argument that it is needed most. Shannon is right
when she says that Mango + Main in particular, and Fair
Trade goods in general support local businesses, in a way
that makes your money, and your goodwill, go global.”
Connect with Shannon at MangoandMain.com
GREENBOOK | SUMMER 2017
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