Opening Bell and Two CLG Farms Selected To Participate in Kiva Launch

Greetings Conway Locally Grown Community,

I was reading some Wendell Berry recently, and something he said stuck with me. He describes how one of the great cultural erosions in America is that people no longer “live while they work.” In other words people spend all their time working and living thoughtlessly so they can save enough time and money to take a weekend or vacation and live how they want to live. Most of us have fallen prey to this trap. We work and work and work so we can live when we’re not working. It is a goal of mine to “live while I work.” Working at Falling Sky Farm and working with CLG both are fulfilling jobs that mostly allow me to do so. I guess I’m lucky to have such an opportunity. I hope that the services of CLG and its farmers improve your lives as much as they do mine.

Falling Sky Farm and Laughing Stock Farm Launch Fundraisers Through Kiva Zip
The Kiva Zip program is a new project launched by the longtime micro-lender, Kiva, that allows anyone the opportunity to make a loan today for as little as $25 to their favorite Arkansas entrepreneurs.  Over time, as your loan is repaid, you get your money back, and you can then withdraw it, or relend it to another entrepreneur. Out of the 30 or so business in Arkansas selected to fundraise through the new platform, two of them where CLG farmers.

• As many of you surely have noticed, the Falling Sky Farm delivery truck has taken a wide array of creative forms over the years.  They’ve had some thrifty evolutions such as a cobbled together box truck, a trailer loaded with freezers, a flat bed truck loaded with freezers, or a flat bed truck with wooden sides loaded with freezers but it is time to upgrade!  So Andrea and Cody launched a fundraiser through Kiva Zip to raise $10,000 that will allow you, their customers and biggest supporters, to make a loan to their farm and help them purchase a much needed new delivery vehicle.  To help Andrea and Cody purchase a new delivery vehicle click here.
• Laughing Stock Farm is also fundraising through Kiva Zip for a loan that will help them create a more sustainable irrigation system that draws from their own surface water. They will bring grid tied solar energy to the farm to subsidize power usage and create a more sustainable energy source. They have a spring fed, six acre pond directly in the middle of their farm that will provide water year round with a solar powered pumping station. To support Josh and Anna project click here.

Kiva Zip officially launched on Friday with a media event at the Clinton Library with Bill Clinton. Clinton believes that most small business loans will be crowdfunded in 15 years. In addition to Clinton Library, Kiva Zip has also partnered with Capital One who will be matching any loans you make to Falling Sky Farm or Laughing Stock Farm dollar for dollar.
So check out Kiva Zip and make a loan to your favorite farms today. I think its a powerful convergence of micro-loans and crowdfunding that could be a powerful tool for helping sustainable farmers get access to the capital they need to expand their farms.

The market is now open. Go to conway.locallygrown.net/market to place your order, single click the checkout button when you’re finished, and you will receive a confirmation email when your order has been placed.

Have a wonderful week,
Gabe Levin