Financing Our Foodshed (11 page)

A couple of months later, I made a pilgrimage to see the brand new shop in downtown Durham. I had seen on their Facebook page that this was the very first day they would be open to the public. I just had to go buy some cheese and show my support.

One of the side benefits to getting a Slow Money loan is being pulled into a network of supporters. We post the loan stories on our website, and we frequent our Slow Money businesses whenever we can. In the case of Reliable Cheese, it’s a remarkably easy task.

At the party that Mark and I hosted to celebrate the 80th firing of our pottery kiln, we sourced all of the food from our Slow Money borrowers. Angelina’s Kitchen made fabulous appetizers, Jackie of Sweet Cheeks Bakery made the cake, Lilly Den set up a carving station, and Patrick not only provided cheese boards with sliced meats, dried fruits, and nuts, he set up a table and staged a cheese tasting. It was in the early days of his business, and he collected many new customers from among the several hundred guests.

When the planning committee for the NC Botanical Garden Sculpture Show asked me for suggestions for catering options, I readily gave them Patrick’s name.

And that’s how I found myself filling up, once again, on Patrick’s delicious gourmet cheeses.

In these times, when we sometimes feel disconnected from our money and the power it holds to do good, it is a pleasure to reconnect and create these circles of local financing and local support in our communities.

About an hour south of me, not far from the world famous golf town of Pinehurst, there is a sweet place called Lula’s Café and Soups.

Lula Poulos heard about Slow Money from one of the founders of the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative, a group that supports local farmers by purchasing their food. (At the time Lula and I became acquainted, they had more than 800 members.) The cooperative had bought chickens from Kelly, a Slow Money borrower (see “Kelly and Her Little Chickens,” in
Chapter 5
), and she told Lula about us.

Lula wanted to make a push to expand her soup business. Most critically, she needed new labels for her frozen soups and help getting a website up. But those things take money, and she didn’t have it. But she had a
great
product.

She wrote to me in an email:

After we spoke on the phone several times and exchanged emails, I suspected this was an unusual young woman. She was engaging and ambitious, and she wanted guidance on how to make it all work. However, one minute she was confident her soups were a home run, and in the next breath she was fretting that she didn’t know how to write a business plan. She’d had some successes, but she’d also had setbacks.

I told her the mission of Slow Money was to catalyze affordable loans to food businesses that supported local, sustainable farmers. I asked if there were soups, sandwiches, and salads that she made using any locally sourced food.

She said she was talking to the folks at the Sandhills Co-op. She hoped to source some of her produce from the farmers who supplied their CSA produce.

A few weeks later, she wrote to say the Sandhills Co-op was considering offering her soups to their members. “Now I am looking for a farmer that grows carrots for my vegan carrot and ginger soup. And I need a lotta peppers for the sweet red pepper soup.”

That last one was easy. I started her off with Screech’s name and number. Just the other day, he’d said his greenhouse was so full of loaded pepper plants he could hardly get in there to pick them! I didn’t have an immediate source for the carrots, but I knew there was fresh local ginger for sale at the farmers market outside Ninth Street Bakery in Durham. I gave her their information as well.

Lula’s dream was to build up not only the café business, but to send her frozen soups (and her salad dressings) far and wide. I encouraged her to build the local and regional market for her soups first, before incurring the added cost of packaging and shipping, and I gave her several ideas for possible local outlets.

And I made an appointment to come and see the Café and taste her famous soups.

The cafe was clean, brightly lit, and uncluttered. Lula is young, and, while sometimes lacking in confidence, she is delightfully hospitable. And her soups, I discovered, are delicious.

Her mother, Helen, was there as well. She had immigrated to the US many years ago from Greece, where she had worked in the restaurant business for 50 years. She offered us something to drink and several samples of the soups. She reminded me of my Italian aunts who always wanted to know if I was hungry (and would feed me regardless of my answer).

A few other folks from Southern Pines, who also wanted to help Lula, were there as well. They weren’t in a position to make a loan, but they wanted to help Lula succeed and were great at cheerleading and sending business her way. One woman was willing to do the graphic design of the new labels for free.

After that first meeting, Lula and I kept in touch. I encouraged her to write at least a rudimentary business plan and referred her to the Small Business Center in her area. She was hesitant at first. She had tried that, and they weren’t helpful. But she agreed to go back and try again, and this time, they helped her produce a simple, but clear budget to go with her new business idea.

I recognized the risk in this project, and knew that no sensible lender would make her a loan. It just seemed
too
risky. While Lula hoped she could increase her soup business by expanding her takeout and wholesale business, she wasn’t entirely clear how that would happen. But this was the type of help I hoped someone would give my own two daughters at a pivotal moment in their careers. It takes a village, and Lula became part of mine. We worked out a small, very Slow Money loan with a payback arrangement that was a blend of money and soup. And I helped her design a coupon to send to all the 800 Co-op households as an advertisement for her café.

She wrote to say that it had worked:

Don’t we all? As flattering as that sounds, I can’t take all the credit. I know, firsthand, that being in the restaurant business is tough in the best of times, and Lula has been trying to get her café going at the south end of her small town
and
launch a wholesale gourmet soup business during the worst recession in years. On top of that, she had no financial backing, no formal education in cooking or in running a restaurant or a business, and no one to help fill in the gaps.

Thank you to the members of Sandhills Farm to Table for purchasing our soups!

Please come visit us for lunch, Mon. - Sat., 11am - 3pm, & receive
10% off
your meal.

We are
Lula’s Café
, 290 SW Broad St.

Southern Pines, NC 28387 910-692-0951 Just tell us you’re a Member for your discount.

This week, to enjoy Red Bliss Potatoes in your box, we are introducing you to our healthy Greek Potato Salad recipe. Pick up our
Homemade Lemon Vinaigrette
(special price for Members) to make a delicious fresh potato salad.

Greek Potato Salad Recipe

2lbs red bliss potatoes (keep peel on) salt and pepper

1/2 cup red onion, Vidalia are ok too

1/2 cup Italian or regular parsley

1/2 tsp. fresh or dried oregano

4 tbl Lula's Cafe Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing. Cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, peel on, put in bowling water until done, but firm, drain and put in bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes or until warm, not hot. Add all ingredients and Lula's Dressing and toss so potatoes are covered. Refrigerate for 1 hour and enjoy!

With the remaining dressing you can make Greek salad, marinate chicken before put on grill, or use your creative ideas.

Please come see us!

Lula's Cafe Staff

I have tried to help mitigate her angst and lack of confidence with a flood of encouragement and praise. What Lula lacks in business acumen, timing, and confidence is made up for by her sheer energy, passion, and enthusiasm to succeed. And most importantly — she makes fabulous soups! In addition to her Slow Money loan, Lula also got some help from Richard, the cook who has been with her since she opened; he is willing to work after the café closes at 3
PM
to make the additional quantities of soups Lula needs to sell frozen in single servings and in bulk.

I’m glad she found the help she needed. If we want a steady supply of good, locally sourced food for ourselves and the generations to come after us, we need to get busy making it happen now. And helping each other is a natural part of being human.

But nothing’s easy, and some days are harder than others. Lula is still trying to get it right. She’s signed up for a class to get certified to make shelf-stable acidified foods. And she consulted with Annette Dunlap at the NC USDA, who has made the crucial difference in helping more local food folks either get going or
keep
going, more times than anyone could count.

Lula sometimes struggles with her loan payments, but she stays in touch and pays whenever she can. When I get a chance, I swing by and collect in soups. Soon, her debt to me will be paid, but I still plan to keep buying her delicious soups.

I once had a faded yellow Subaru station wagon that I had to jump start to get going. I had to park it on level ground so I could open the driver’s door, lean my shoulder up against the doorframe...and
push. With a good, solid effort I could get it to move a bit, and once I had won over inertia, it would begin to roll. Another hard push, to get it rolling nicely, and I’d jump in, pop the clutch, and I was off.

It was a great feeling. Here was a car that looked big and heavy, yet I could get it rolling all by myself if I just put my weight against it and gave it my all. I did this over and over again, reluctant to get it repaired and lose the satisfaction of this empowering ritual.

Being an activist is like that every day. The challenges seem big and difficult to shift. That first shove to get past the inertia of what seem like immovable obstacles is daunting.

I rely on the advice of Saul Alinsky to “choose winnable victories.” Those three words have been a lifeboat of optimism and determination, helping me from getting lost in discouragement.

Making Slow Money loans to support new, successful, small- and medium-scale sustainable farming all over the United States — and helping the ones we have survive and thrive — seems a winnable victory.

If we just take it one hefty push at a time.

Funds to Farms Getting low-interest capital to small- and medium-scale farms is crucial to ensuring the availability of good, healthy, tasty, local food. Soil fertility, a strong local food economy, and access to good, local food for everyone — it’s what we are all after.

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