Riverland Farm is a certified organic vegetable farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts growing for CSA member families, local grocery stores, and local producers of value-added products. Equity Trust’s first Riverland-associated loan was used by the property owners to renovate their tobacco barn to create farm office space and a vegetable washing, packing, and storage facility, enabling them to wash and store …
Equity Trust Fund loans
Newtown Florist Club
Equity Trust’s loan to the Newtown Florist Club, in Gainsville, GA, enabled them to purchase four lots to build four CLT homes for low-income families as part of a long-term effort to strengthen and care for their community.
Sixty years ago, a group of African American women established the Newtown Florist Club to provide aid to neighborhood families during bereavement. …
Jubilee House Community
Good Humus Produce
Jeff and Annie Main have been developing their organic farm, Good Humus Produce, on 20 acres in Capay, CA, since 1976. When they arrived on the property northwest of Sacramento in Yolo County, there was a single olive tree. The Mains built a beautiful house, a barn, greenhouses, and other infrastructure and their plantings include hedgerows of native trees …
Holyoke Community Land Trust
Holyoke Community Land Trust, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, provides quality homes to low-income families, with a commitment to increasing resident homeownership. Residents own their own homes, but the land beneath is held by the nonprofit, to ensure owner-occupancy and on-going affordability. Formed in 1992, after a recent several-year period of dormancy it was reinvigorated in early 2010. A cash-flow loan from …
Real Pickles
Just Food
Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to make fresh, locally grown food accessible to all New Yorkers by connecting communities and local farms with resources, support and one another. Since 1995, Just Food has promoted the creation and spread of sustainable food programs, including CSAs, community-run farmers’ markets, community gardens, and farm-to-food pantry programs. Just Food serves thousands …
H.O.M.E.
H.O.M.E, Inc. (originally Homeworkers Organized for More Employment) in Orland, ME, was organized in 1970 when a local shoe manufacturer closed its doors. Under the leadership of Sister Lucy Poulin, H.O.M.E emerged as a craft collective to generate home-based work and market the products as a source of income for the women who had been doing skilled piecework for the …
Whippoorwill Farm CSA
Whippoorwill Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm serving some 400 families on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. Whippoorwill grows organic produce and flowers for its members, for local restaurants, and for sale at farmers markets. Equity Trust provided a cash flow loan to help the farm manage as it adjusts marketing strategies to changes in the island economy and …
Southside Community Land Trust
Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) in Providence, Rhode Island, provides access to land, education and other resources so people in Greater Providence can grow food in environmentally sustainable ways and create community food systems where locally produced, affordable, and healthy food is available to all. SCLT manages a wide range of urban agriculture programs including youth and adult agricultural education, …
Windborne Farm
Windborne Farm operates a CSA in Ft. Jones, California that provides grain, beans, edible seeds, and cheese to 100 families. The crops are cultivated with a team of Fjord draft horses using biodynamic methods. Our loan financed start-up costs at a time when few people thought it would be possible to market grain using the CSA model. To our great …
The Food Project
The Food Project has been engaging young people in sustainable agriculture since 1991. Each year, 150 teenagers from Greater Boston and the North Shore of Massachusetts are engaged in meaningful work leading volunteers and growing food in Lincoln, Boston, Beverly, and Lynn. The produce from the farms is donated to hunger relief organizations, sold at farmers’ markets and through CSA …