Read Online Financing Our Foodshed by Carol Peppe Hewitt - Free Book Online Page B

her home kitchen, and she and her husband began shopping for a storefront downtown where they could add a retail business. They found an ideal space, but the move would require capital for renovation and the purchase of refrigerated display cases, a commercial oven, and a sign for the building.
    Happily, she found Slow Money NC, though by a somewhat circuitous route.
    When Abilicious Bakery closed, Abi listed her nearly new commercial oven on Craigslist. It was exactly what Mykal needed. Having received a Slow Money loan to purchase the oven herself, it seemed only fitting to Abi that she make a Slow Money loan to Mykal. Shespent some time getting more familiar with Mykal’s business and getting to know Mykal. And they found a way to make it work.
    Abi went from being a Slow Money borrower to being a Slow Money lender, and Mykal got a nearly new industrial oven and a new friend.
    A week later, the oven made its way to the new Dandalia Bakery & Coffee House in Sanford, NC. Now, Mykal’s fresh baked goods and coffee are available to a larger audience every day (their shop is at one of the busiest intersections in town). Now that she’s had time to get settled into her new space, I think it’s time we commissioned a special Slow Money NC cupcake!
    “I’ll grow wherever I’m planted,” seems a worthwhile philosophy, and her popular bakery and cupcake business is evidence that she is right.
    “We’re here to stay,” Mykal says of their new location. “This summer, we plan to add smoothies, featuring local seasonal fruits. We are connecting with more of the local farmers, hoping to buy more from them to go into our desserts.” For Mykal, this is one dandelion wish come true.
    Which brings us back to the purpose of this project, to build a resilient local foodshed while we also build community — truly the sweet side of Slow Money.

Making a Difference — One Loan at a Time
    Angelina expanded her restaurant using credit card debt — until we came along and took her interest rate from 18% to 2%. Making delicious food, bought from local farmers, is her mission and why her restaurant is so popular.

4
Finance and Food
    We know when it comes to food, slow is better. Food that is carefully grown, nurtured with intent, and thoughtfully harvested and processed, makes for wonderful eating. The Slow Food Movement, started by Carlo Petrini in the 1980s, proclaimed this, and the idea caught on. The Slow Food Movement has spawned restaurants, international conferences, and local chapters — all a wonderful coming together of folks who care about consciously produced and prepared food.
    Now we are taking that lesson and applying it to finances. We are slowing our money down — making conscious, thoughtful choices about where to put our money so it can have a beneficial impact.
    Altruism: “The greatest good for the greatest number.” I memorized that for a vocabulary lesson in high school. I remember loving the sound of it. It sounded fair and smart — an honorable principle to live by and strive for.
    In the last decade, we have seen a big chunk of money shift from the poor and the working and middle classes to the 1%. By all indications, it’s not coming back anytime soon — maybe not for a generation — maybe never. What will the end result of this be? A reactionarymilitarization of the 99% who may feel the need to protect what little is left to them, and a parallel, more sophisticated militarization of the 1% to make sure they maintain their comfortable luxuries?
    Or is there a more equitable possibility — one where we learn to share?
    Given the choice, I’d rather we figure out how to do the latter. To me, Slow Money seems altruistic — and a great way to begin to share.
    Around the country, folks who are concerned about ensuring access to sustainably farmed, locally grown food are creating new ways to provide community capital to do what our banks will not. They are making equity-style investments, starting