Are you a local food producer, processor, market owner/ staff, co-op owner/ staff or other regional food entrepreneur that is committed to social values and community benefit goals? Are you looking for better access to capital?
Local Food and Farm Co-ops, with partners at the Rural Agri-Innovation Network/ SSMIC and the Greenbelt Fund are creating an exciting new opportunity—but in order to create a funding opportunity that is useful, they are asking for your tell them what you need, and help shape their program. You have 2 days left to give them input via the survey link below.
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We want to hear from you! We are contacting you to invite you to give your input to an exciting new project, the Fair Finance Fund for the local food and farm sector.
We appreciate your time to fill out the survey so that we can ensure the fund meets the needs of the sector. Please fill it out if you are a local food or farm enterprise with social, environmental and community goals and benefits, and feel free to share with others.
Please click here to fill out our survey.
Some more about the project:
The Fair Finance Fund will be a revolving loan fund offering patient capital (long-term or negotiated rates) for local food and farm social enterprises. Social enterprises in this sector include regional producers, markets and other regional food system partners that share social values and community benefit goals. The research is a coordinated by the Local Food and Farm Co-ops, with partners at the Rural Agri-Innovation Network/ SSMIC and the Greenbelt Fund. All participant responses will be held in strict confidence by Local Food and Farm Co-ops. The resulting report and general non-identifying statistical data may be shared with Fair Finance Fund partners and the Greenbelt Fund.
Loans will be offered in the mid-scale range, which is often seen by banks as too small, but is too large for micro-finance schemes. Between now and September, we are soliciting input from partners and enterprises to ensure that the fund is designed to meet their needs, and be viable over the long-term.
Here are a couple of examples that have inspired us:
FarmWorks(Nova Scotia)
Chantier de l’Economie Sociale(Montreal)
La Montanita Fund(Arizona)
We thank you in advance for your input!
Sally Miller
Local Food and Farm Co-ops
sally<at>localfoodandfarm.coop
David Thompson
Rural Agri-Innovation Network/ Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre
dthompson<at>ssmic.com
