SEPT. 25 UPDATE: Thanks to Minneapolis' Birchwood Cafe and their generous customers for adding $320 to the fund through the sale of seed packets!

JULY 18 UPDATE: Thank you, Just Food Co-op in Northfield for a generous donation of $5,000! Plus, they sold $450 worth of Grow a Farmer seed packets. We're so inspired, we're raising our fundraising goal to $40,000 to grow even more new farmers!

MAY 11 UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who came to this week's Grow a Farmer fundraising breakfast in Northfield. Because of the amazing generosity of those supporters, the fund grew by $4,270 this week!

UPDATE: The Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation is seeding the Grow a Farmer fund with a $10,000 donation! We hope that inspires you to donate now!

When you contribute to the Grow a Farmer fund, you're supporting local food and new local farmers!

The Grow a Farmer fund is a resource for farmers with very low family incomes who don't qualify for conventional financing.

Here's how it works:

1. Aspiring farmers learn about free-range poultry production and business planning through the Agripreneur Training Program -- part of Main Street Project's sustainable food and agriculture program.
2. They use Grow a Farmer loans for supplies (chicks and feed) to raise flocks of free-range chickens at year-round farm incubator sites. Each flock is 500 - 1,500 chickens.
3. Farmers pay back their loans after selling their healthy, humanely-raised, and tasty chickens.
4. The Grow a Farmer fund makes more loans!

Jose graduated from the most recent agripreneur training class and shared this thought: "What I need is financial support. . . I like working, but I don't have enough resources -- the means to start a business like this." Another training graduate, Jaime, is looking ahead: "I see myself taking good food to the tables of many families. I think with your help I will be able to achieve my goal."

You have the opportunity to help farmers like Jose and Jaime succeed -- not through handouts, but through small loans that make it possible for them to begin. You have the opportunity to be part of a creative, sustainable solution!