By Admin, BuyLocalBG.com, BuyLocalBg@gmail.com/
Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 8:30 AM CST
We received this email from Michelle Howell of Need More Acre Farms and we asked if we could share it to you our friends at Buy Local Bowling Green:
Nathan and I are getting ready to announce our Kiva loan to fund a certified kitchen at our new farm in Halfway, Kentucky. Over the last couple of years we have learned that one of the main obstacles for the local food movement is the ability for farmers to be able to grow and distribute their food directly to their community. As governmental regulations related to sanitary requirements increased in the early to mid 1900’s fewer farmers produced food for direct sale to consumers (Food and Everyday Life, Willigen & Willigen). We all know what this has done to our local farmers, the food they grow and our communities. In order to bring a piece of that back we hope to become a model that others can look to that is community driven, inclusive, multi faceted and financially viable. The certified kitchen we are hoping to fund will allow us to safely prepare food into products that consumers currently eat. We plan to prepare food that can be purchased by our neighbors, consumers at the farmers market, schools, restaurants, food pantries and retail markets. We will also be expanding the opportunities on our farm to beginning farmers and local food entrepreneurs who need a small business incubator. We are thankful for the support that each of you have given us over the last couple of years and thought of you first as lenders to our project.
Kiva has asked me to send out a request to those who know us best and would be interested in supporting us financially through a loan of any dollar amount they feel comfortable with starting at just $5. If we receive 30 loans in the next couple of days Kiva has offered to loan us an additional $500. Our loan will remain ‘private” until we are funded by at least 15 lenders. And we have two weeks to get those 15 in order to continue with the loan process! Kiva is a great resource for not only providing zero interest loans to small scale businesses, but also helps to promote ways that people are creatively supporting themselves. Feel free to forward this to anyone who you think may be interested in learning more about our project.
