10/02/2025
History of the Filipino Community of Seattle (FCS) Small Business Program:
The Filipino Community of Seattle (FCS) Small Business Program reached historic milestones in 2022. That summer in June 2022, we finally celebrated the long-awaited ribbon cutting of the Filipino Community Village, long delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon after, we hosted our very first Palengke Market, sponsored by the Small Business Resiliency Network (SBRN) in September 2022.
The inaugural FCS Palengke event brought together 30+ small businesses and marked the first market held at both the historic Filipino Community Center Ballroom and the newly opened Kern-Veloria Plaza. With support from SBRN, we partnered with local artists and entrepreneur consultants to uplift our Filipino/a/x community, creatives, and small businesses still finding their way to recover after the pandemic.
Key collaborators included Jennifer Marie Johnson (Black Pinay) and Gracie Santos (Grayseas Pies), co-founders of The Palengke National, as well as Bennyroyce Royon—Filipino American director, choreographer, dancer, and cultural producer—who now serves as our Filipino Community of Seattle Program Director.
The Palengke became a powerful milestone for community, culture, and commerce. What began in 2022 has since grown into today’s Talipapa Market Cultural Festival, now held annually to kick off Filipino American History Month as we continue to support our creatives and small businesses.
Join us this weekend, October 3–4, to celebrate how far we’ve come—and to keep building the future, together: fcs-talipapa-2025.eventbrite.com
"Small Business Resiliency Network has helped over one hundred small businesses with technical assistance, marketing, and networking. In collaboration with The Palengke National, we started Filipino American History Month with The Palengke at FCS which featured over 30 small businesses." – FCS Annual Report 2022
