Florence Savings Bank has provided loans totaling $661,500, enhanced by a $107,000 MassDevelopment guaranty, to the newly formed Old Creamery Cooperative in Cummington.

When the owners of the creamery, a 126-year-old rural country store in Western Massachusetts, decided to sell the business, more than 550 community members united to form a consumer cooperative that will own, expand and oversee management of this full-service retail grocery store, café and gathering place.

Florence Savings Bank also provided financing for the cooperative to buy the building. The group will use loan proceeds to rehabilitate the 445 Berkshire Trail and expand the parking lot. The organization, which has 26 full- and part-time employees, has hired an experienced general manager to oversee daily operations.

Old Creamery Cooperative’s facility dates back to 1886, when it housed the Cummington Cooperative Creamery, the co-op of local dairy farmers. Co-op members brought fresh cream from their farms to churn into butter, and at the peak, 145 dairies produced 20,000 pounds of butter per month. Since then, the creamery has been a restaurant, general store and combination of the two, and now serves as a community hub in the area of Western Mass. known as the "Hilltowns."