Financing Our Foodshed
May 2019
|
|
In a recent
article
, author David Korten stated that, "Soil, not money, is the source of wealth, and our economic system needs to reflect that." We couldn't agree more!" It's what propels our mission to provide financial stewardship to small-scale regenerative food farms through our SOIL revolving loan fund.
As we enter our second year, Slow Money Central Virginia is grateful to all our supporters, including individual donors as well as several community and private foundations. We're grateful to farmers who have trusted us with a new and different way to support their financial needs. And we're grateful to everyone else who has supported us by helping spread our message, including two recent awesome blog posts by
Virginia Impact Investing Forum
and
Alexis Advisors
in Richmond. Thank you!
If you have not done so already, please help us to continue serving the growing financial needs of our local small-scale food producers and...
|
|
Become A Nurture Capitalist Today!
This is a grassroots effort! We hope as many people as possible will support our mission.
Any size charitable contribution
you can make to our SOIL revolving loan fund goes a long way toward helping us help the local foodshed with its financial needs.
|
|
Slow Money in Tidewater
While our roots will always be in Central Virginia, we realized from the very beginning that there is an interest in and a need for our SOIL fund throughout the great Commonwealth of Virginia. Earlier in May we officially brought Slow Money to the Tidewater region with a kick-off dinner at
The Butcher's Son Chophouse
in Virginia Beach. We're excited about the energy and enthusiasm that came out of this first meeting. If you live in the Tidewater region or have connections there, please spread the word about Slow Money!
|
|
Slow Money kick-off in Virginia Beach at The Butcher's Son on May 1, 2019
|
|
Nurture Capital At Work
Anyone who runs a business of any size or any kind knows how important it is to be efficient with your resources. Farms are certainly no different, and we would argue that efficiency is more important at those businesses producing our healthiest food -with all the challenges it entails - than any other type of business. That's why we're so excited to see Nurture Capital at work helping improve efficiency.
Free Union Grass Farm
reports outstanding improvements in their chicken egg business from the new roll-out nest boxes they purchased with their Slow Money loan.
Little Hat Creek Farm
just placed the order for new bakery equipment, which we'll be able to show you real soon. And
Sharondale Farm
continues to benefit from new equipment they purchased with their Slow Money loan, such as the automatic mushroom substrate bagger shown in the video below.
|
|
Money Mornings With Alexis Advisors
|
|
Money Mornings is a monthly breakfast program hosted by Roberta Keller with
Alexis Advisors.
It is designed to provide our community with free education and a welcoming atmosphere to open the money conversation and learn how to live, spend, and invest intentionally. Join the conversation on Tuesday June 11, from 8-9am, at Ellwood Thompson's Beet Cafe in Richmond when Roberta will be talking with Slow Money Central Virginia co-founder Hunter Hopcroft.
|
|
|
Always Accepting Farmer Loan Applications!
|
|
The mission of Slow Money Central Virginia is to support the financial needs of farmers and food entrepreneurs in our region. Our inaugural program called
SOIL (Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally)
is a 0% revolving loan program. We accept applications on a rolling basis. We can’t stress enough that no request is too small, as we want to be a friendly source of capital to help farm businesses grow in a way that’s best for them.
|
|
|
The 2019-2020 Buy Fresh Buy Local guides were recently released by the
Piedmont Environmental Council
for the Charlottesville, Northern Piedmont, and Loudoun areas. Slow Money Central Virginia is grateful to be featured in the
Charlottesville area addition
. There are seven Buy Fresh Buy Local chapters throughout Virginia. It is an invaluable service for our local foodshed.
|
|
|
Sign Up for Peer-to-Peer Opportunities
|
|
In the past several months we have presented a few opportunities for peer-to-peer loans in the local foodshed. We use this strategy for those loan requests that are too large for our current SOIL fund reserves, or for requests from off-farm food businesses. Due to the growing number of these opportunities we are seeing, and expect to see in the future, we are trying to better systematize our approach. If you are interested in being contacted about peer-to-peer lending opportunities as they arise, please fill out the
Lender Information Form
on our website so we can curate the opportunities according to your interest.
|
|
|
Other Events & Opportunities
|
|
Women in Food at Real Local RVA June Meeting
|
|
|
|
June 3, 2019
10:30am-11:45am
St. Stephen's Church, Richmond
|
The June
Real Local RVA
meeting features a panel of RVA women discussing their very different day to day responsibilities, the ups and downs of working in local food/drink, and what it’s like to be a part of Richmond’s food and beverage scene. Panelists include Sally Schwitters of
Tricycle Urban Ag
, Kelli Lemon of
Urban Hang Suite
, Shola Walker of
Mahogany Sweets
, and Kate Lee of
Hardywood Craft
Brewery.
|
|
|
|
June 12, 2019
8am-Noon
Carver Center, Rapidan, VA
|
VSU Small Farm Outreach Program will host this exciting opportunity for farmers to see a variety of crop production and field management practices, learn more about research, and connect with experts and agriculture leaders in Virginia. USDA representatives will be on hand to talk about their agency resources that are available to help small and beginning farmers.
|
|
Buy Fresh Buy Local Event in Virginia Beach
|
|
|
|
June 7, 2019
12:30pm
New Earth Farm
|
|
Save The Dates:
It's never too early to plan and you don't want to miss these two great annual conferences:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
