Low interest rates fund startups, infrastructure

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

A low-interest loan can make the difference between building an irrigation system or losing a season's production.

The Community Food Co-op in Bellingham, Wash., is offering that difference for three small-farm operators in Whatcom County. The farms received loans from the co-op in March.

The co-op's Farm Fund is now accepting a second round of loan applications. Loans will range from $500 to $5,000. Three loans will likely be available, fund administrator Jean Rogers said.

"We figured the co-op is best positioned to build the market," she said. "We started with grants, but when we got more and more applicants, we moved to offering low-interest loans."

The "signature project" so far has been Osprey Hill Farm, Rogers said.

"We would not have been able to finish our new well and irrigation system without the Farm Fund loan," Anna Martin of Osprey Hill Farm said. "All of the trenching, the hundreds and hundreds of feet of pipe, the valve boxes, faucets, plumbing connections and hydrants were made possible by the loan."

Other recipients were Jon Pendleton at Tailwind Farm and Helen Solem at Sumas River Farm.

Pendleton said his $1,500 loan helped with start-up costs -- including seed, fertilizer and organic certification -- for his less than 1 acre of greens.

"This is the first season on my own," he said. "I worked for other people for six years before and you definitely get paid much better working for yourself."

The loans have a two-year term, Rogers said, and the co-op is keeping the application process simple.

The revolving loan program is funded by donations from co-op shoppers and a $12,000 matching grant from the Sustainable Whatcom Fund of the Whatcom Community Foundation.

"We're starting it slowly and carefully," Rogers said. "We want to keep it rolling and revolving."

To apply

Applications are available online at www.communityfood.coop or at the service desk at either co-op store. The deadline is Oct. 29. Funding decisions will be announced in early December.

Information: Jean Rogers, 360-734-8158 ext. 217.