Seila Herrera purchased Las Palmas Restaurant and Catering in 2016. Her husband Roberto Green joined the business one year later. With a passion for bringing Dominican food and culture to the Boston area, the husband-and-wife team made improvements to the restaurant and expanded the catering component to become almost eighty percent of the business. They met the BEI staff by participating in the Business Equity COVID-19 Emergency Fund, which also provided funds and advisory services to businesses impacted by the pandemic in 2020.

Like many others, they had to shut down operations for weeks at a time during the height of the pandemic and lost a significant amount of revenue. The BEI Henry P. Kendall Foundation allowed them to update their primary location’s aesthetic, build social media marketing campaigns, improve their business efficiency with new appliances, and give them time to dedicate to more strategic efforts. In addition, working with the non-profit organization, Off Their Plate, they continued their catering work and provided over 500 meals a week to those in the medical field and first responders.