How to Succeed in (Needham) Business — By Trying Really Hard

August 7, 2025
• Four Needham businesses earned recognition for their service, commitment to the community and “sparkle” during the Charles River Regional Chamber’s Needham Night.

If you ask Teri Volante Boardman about the success of her business, she’ll first credit her parents. Alongside her two brothers, the fourth-generation co-owner of Volante Farms said she and her siblings “learned everything we know from our parents.”

Standing beside her, smiling, was now-retired third-generation Volante Farms owner Melodie Volante. Teri calls her mom.

And the Needham business community considers Volante Farms legendary. On Thursday, the mom and daughter pair accepted the Legend Award from the Charles River Regional Chamber as part of its eighth annual Needham Night ceremony. Other honorees included Needham Garden Center and Hardware, the Rotary Club of Needham and Cook Craft Kitchen & Bar.

Inspired by nominations through a community survey, the chamber awards local organizations each year. The event was originally hosted by the now-defunct Needham Business Association, which merged with the chamber.

The Needham Rotary Club “overwhelmingly” earned the Community Impact Award this year, said Lise Elcock, vice president of membership and development at the chamber. The CRRC also represents Newton, Wellesley and Watertown.

Rotary President Jim Dietel said the group commits to “an incredibly vast amount of work across a lot of spectrums” — over the past 12 months, that’s looked like building high tunnels at the Needham Community Farm, repairing a bridge in Ridge Hill and, of course, flipping pancakes.

Dietel, who works at Needham Bank, said Needham is home to many independent stores.

“From my outside perspective, it seems like the community runs around small business,” he said. “You’re not looking at mega corporations, you’re looking at mom-and-pop shops all up and down Highland [Avenue], up and down Great Plain [Avenue] and Needham Bank, the community bank, and growing into a super community bank.”

Volante Farms, which moved from Newton to Needham more than 60 years ago, was bestowed the Legend Award Thursday Night. “You just don’t find that type of family-run business in a town these days,” Elcock said of the business.

“They’re just such a wonderful, warm, Needham-born, Needham-raised, Needham-educated family,” she added.

Volante employs about 200 people across the sectors of the business, from the fields to the greenhouse to the kitchen and farmstand. Though she still fields the occasional question, Melodie Volante said the farm is in good hands.

“At the end of the day, what is most important to me is they still love each other. They’re still brother and sister,” she said.

Business wasn’t easy during the pandemic, but they persevered. Teri Volante Boardman said Needham is largely to thank for that.

“I feel like it’s full of a lot of people who just are really appreciative and into local food and where it comes from,” she said. “I think a community that’s so accepting like that has made it, in many ways, very easy for us to expand in certain ways.”

Following an over four-month renovation — adding 24,000 products to its inventory and doubling in size — Needham Garden Center rebranded as Needham Garden & Hardware. Owner Garrett Graham said the complete remodel was inspired by the closure of Harvey’s Hardware.

Graham and his staff earned the Sparkle Award, which recognizes a business that has beautified the community, either outside or inside. Becky Cook, the business’s garden manager, worked to install new awnings and planters to create a “more welcoming and inviting” space, she said. Their plant side of the store has also “blossomed.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Graham said.

“We’re here to stay,” Cook added.

Cook Craft Kitchen & Bar was named Business of the Year by the chamber, and new owners Diana Sepulveda and Edison Gutierrez expressed their excitement for the award. Since buying the restaurant three years ago, Sepulveda said she and her husband have focused on community outreach by delivering pizza to local dance troupes and taking part in raffles.

Many of their customers have “become more like family,” Sepulveda said, and she prides herself on creating connections in town.

“I love that about Needham, everybody’s kind of independent, but everybody really works together,” she said. “We’ve felt support from other businesses.”

This was the CRRC’s first year hosting the event at Boston Properties. During the ceremony, attendees sat outside, looking out into Cutler Park.

Carrying out the yearly tradition offers an opportunity “to celebrate those businesses that make this town so special,” Elcock said.

“It’s a way for us to say thank you for the vibrant economic outlook of our town,” she said. “It takes a village to make a really good, strong business community.”