Preserving a Legacy
Wright’s Dairy Farm and Bakery is a thriving, fifth-generation family business that has operated in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, for over a century. A dairy farm at its core, they take pride in caring for their Holstein cows and maintaining local agriculture in their community.
Cate Kennedy, the food operations manager and fifth generation Wright, carries out her family legacy alongside her mother, Ellen Puccetti, and grandmother, Claire Boudreault.
They are committed to tradition, quality and innovation, and they continue to serve their customers with the same dedication as George Wright in 1914.
From Cow to Cone and Beyond
Wright’s has been pasteurizing and bottling its own milk on the farm since the 1930s and continues to do so today. In the 1970s, they shifted from home delivery services and opened their first retail store.
As they added more Holstein cows to their herd, Claire created chocolate cream pies and cream puffs using the extra milk and cream. These, along with blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookies, are fondly known as “Claire’s Classics” and live on as bestsellers.
Cate’s passion for ice cream led to the creation of “The Wright Scoop,” a seasonal ice cream trailer, and a year-round location in Providence, RI. These feature a variety of flavors, including cookie dough fresh from the bakery.
“We really try to not just create great products but have products that have a lot of synergy and can play off each other,” Cate said.
Partners in Success
Farm Credit proudly plays a role in Wright’s success and looks forward to supporting their family for generations to come.
“Farm Credit has been instrumental in helping us financially to grow, to help us take the old barn and turn it into that new bakery that we had always envisioned,” Ellen said.
Farm Credit East has a full line of farm advisory services to help their customers – including a consulting team that Wright’s Dairy Farm partnered with to assess return on investment prior to expanding their operations.
“Farm Credit has been so beneficial because there were no other institutions willing to lend us money at the time,” Claire said. “It was a big risk, but they saw something that we couldn’t see but that we were striving for.”
