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 …
Equity Trust Fund loans
Real Pickles
Real Pickles, a small Western Massachusetts business producing organic raw pickled products, received a loan from the Equity Trust Fund in 2009 to help finance a the purchase and renovation of an energy efficient processing facility. The purchase is enabling Real Pickles to expand its business and continue contributing to the local food movement. 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. (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 company.
For …
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 …
