From left, Scott Miller, Small Business Development Center business advisor, Adolph and Elizabeth Morando, owners of Borsari Foods, and Kate Moody, Small Business Development Center business advisor, at the National Small Business Week Awards ceremony in Buffalo. Submitted photo

Borsari Food Company Inc. was honored at the National Small Business Week Awards ceremony, an annual event sponsored by the Small Business Administration — Buffalo District that recognizes outstanding regional businesses and entrepreneurs.

The Small Business Development Center at Jamestown Community College nominated Borsari Foods earlier this year in recognition of their commitment to growth and their consistent pursuit of excellence in marketing.

Borsari Foods is a family-owned business started in 2001 on a farm in Western New York state. The company was born when Elizabeth and Adolph Morando decided to commercialize an old secret family recipe for “seasoned salts.”

Adolph Morando’s grandmother, Adelcisa Borsari, brought the original recipe with her from Italy in 1914. Using the original recipe as a guide, adjustments were made and special equipment was built to allow larger batch sizes to be made without compromising the integrity of the final product. Borsari Foods now produces and markets six varieties covering different flavor profiles. They also added olive oil and a Bloody Mary mix to their product line. The business sells its products nationally in several chain grocery stores, specialty food stores and their company website. They also sell on Amazon where they are an Amazon Choice vendor with a 4.7 star rating. In 2016, Borsari Foods expanded into a new manufacturing facility located in Jamestown.

In 2015, Borsari Foods began working with the SBDC business advisors, Scott Miller and Kate Moody, to participate in an intensive digital marketing consulting program providing high-level consulting services as well as the assistance of an intern from JCC’s social media internship program. Since the start of the program three years ago, Borsari Foods has grown its expertise in five digital/social media platforms — email marketing, company website, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

During the past several years, they have hosted six JCC social media interns, several of whom they employed beyond the semester class in order to continue the positive marketing momentum. Under the guidance of Simone Sellstrom, assistant professor and coordinator of communication at JCC, and Scott Miller, SBDC business advisor, students in the social media marketing internship class develop, propose and then implement strategic social media initiatives for their employers.

In a letter to the SBDC, Elizabeth Morando said, “The JCC Intern program has been a successful endeavor in educating the Borsari team with the need to be involved with social media. We continue with this trend with an extended social media staff. We look forward to continuing to gain additional insight and knowledge.”

The staff of the Small Business Development Center at JCC attended the ceremony to present their award to Borsari Foods.