Cascade Harvest Coalition

The HumanLinks Foundation Loan Program, administered by Banner Bank, offers small loans ($2.5K-$25K) at low interest rates (3%) to sustainable farmers in Washington state. The initial application identifies four criteria used by the bank when vetting applicants: credit, cash flow projections, capacity for repayment (related to cash flow), and the applicant's character. That's all pretty straightforward except that I don't see collateral on the list. 

So far the program has mostly focused on flood victims, but it's purpose much broader. To learn more, contact Nancy Iscovitz at nancy@humanlinksfoundation.org.

Alex Moore is Program Manager at Cascade Harvest Coalition

Thanks for your interest and involvement in our local food movement.  I am pleased to announce that today the Metropolitan King County Council today took a step toward helping promote urban agriculture by unanimously adopting legislation calling for the creation and management of community gardens on county-owned land throughout urban King County.  I was proud to sponsor and vote in favor this legislation.

A Council-requested study recently found that King County owns more than 2,000 parcels of land in urban areas, and as many as 84 unused parcels may be fit for siting community gardens.  The adopted legislation asks the King County Executive to develop a plan to create and manage gardens on these unused parcels, in conjunction with an advisory council made up of representatives from Public Health-Seattle & King County, Washington State University, the King County Agricultural Commission, food banks, gardening organizations, schools, and homeless shelters.  The garden implementation plan should be complete by November of this year. 

As you know, interest in community gardening has surged throughout King County as people recognize the health, environmental, and financial benefits of fresh, locally grown produce.  Community gardens are a way for people who don't own land, including apartment-dwellers, to produce fresh, local, organic produce at a very low cost.  Community gardens are also a source of local produce for the wider community-in 2009 the Interbay P-Patch alone donated over 5000 pounds of produce to the local food bank. 

In the City of Seattle, over 2,000 people are on a waiting list for P-Patches.  This legislation addresses the greatest barrier to expanding community gardening-finding available land in urban areas-by allowing suitable public property to be gardened by the community.   

Thanks again for your interest and involvement in this issue.  I appreciate your work!

Sincerely,

Larry Phillips, Councilmember
Metropolitan King County Council, District Four
King County Courthouse
516 Third Avenue, Room 1200
Seattle, WA 98104-3272
206.296.1004
larry.phillips@kingcounty.gov

For more information:  http://www.kingcounty.gov/phillips
To sign up for my eNews:  http://www.kingcounty.gov/Phillips/Newsletters.aspx

Former White House advisor, Van Jones, popularized the phrase 'green collar jobs'. His vision is to bring job training and employment opportunities to urban America through a national focus on energy retrofits. While Van's message is spot on, many of my colleagues have lamented that agriculture doesn't get enough recognition for the green collar jobs it creates.

Last month, the Washington State Employment Security Department reported that the "most common green occupation in 2009 was agricultural workers." The agriculture industry creates more than 12,000 green jobs annually, the second largest source of green jobs in WA state (yes...behind energy efficiency in the construction industry). Those 12,000 positions represent 11% of all agricultural employment in WA state and are mostly generated by companies whose work is “preventing and reducing environmental pollution.”  

As projects such as Farm Power NW and the Wild Horse Wind Farm continue to challenge our conception of what food and energy production look like and as the city of Seattle continues to herald 2010 as the Year of Urban Agrulture, let's continue to look to farms as a source of green jobs.  

Alex Moore is Program Manager at Cascade Harvest Coalition.

One of the primary barriers to growth for small farmers and other food entrepreneurs is access to capital. Appropriate financing allows entrepreneurs to invent new technologies, deploy innovative sales strategies, attract new investment, and ford occasional economic valleys. Small businesses in WA state have a lot of advantages including nationally renowned community development organizations, a supportive Department of Financial Institutions, and a strong angel investor community.

In an effort to synthesize the leading programs as well as highlight some more creative tools and strategies from around the nation, I will begin posting regular blog shorts, highlighting one or two programs or opportunities at a time. We look forward to your participation and feedback.

This fall I spoke with David Poor of Northwest Farm Credit Services about their Young and Beginning Producer Grant. The program was established to support young and beginning farmers who would otherwise have a hard time accessing financing. ‘Beginning’ is a bit of a misnomer as eligible farmers must have several (but fewer than 10) years of experience in farm management. Loans can range in amount from $2.5K to 200K and interest rates (at the time of our conversation) are at approximately prime rate plus 2%. Ancillary benefits include mentorship and a $500 stipend for continuing education (including the purchase of a computer).

Alex Moore is Program Manager at Cascade Harvest Coalition.

Last year the farmers selling produce at Seattle NFMA farmers markets (University District, West Seattle, Columbia City, Lake City, Magnolia, Broadway Sunday and Phinney) donated 47,000 lbs. of produce to Seattle food banks.

NFMA director Chris Curtis says "food bank shelves are generally devoted to shelf stable processed food.  Our neighborhood food banks tell us they are thrilled to receive this high quality, totally fresh and nutritionally dense produce every week.  The produce is generally collected at the end of the market day by food bank volunteers, then stored, packaged and distributed to food bank clients within 48 hours."