SOIL Loan Fund (SOIL)

The SOIL Loan program — a collaboration between the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) and Foodshed Capital — was established in 2022 to provide flexible, zero-interest financing to small farm and food businesses to help them grow, increase their stability, and strengthen food system security. The SOIL Loan Fund was designed to support food producers who have difficulty accessing financing through conventional loan programs due to challenges and risks inherent in small-scale farming.

Status: ANCA now lists the SOIL Loan Fund under "Past Project" on its Access to Financing page and describes it in the past tense; ANCA's current financing offer is the ANCA Bridge Loan Program. Loans supported North Country projects including a commercial composting operation, a specialty butcher shop, climate-controlled storage for a tree nursery, a walk-in freezer for pastured meats, a tractor, and retail freezers for direct meat marketing.

Small farm and food businesses in ANCA's northern New York (North Country) service region, specifically food producers who have difficulty accessing financing through conventional loan programs due to the challenges and risks inherent in small-scale farming. The fund was developed with particular attention to marginalized populations with a history of exclusion from agriculture. Foodshed Capital, a certified Community Development Financial Institution, conducted the financial due diligence and implemented the fund.

• Zero-interest (0%) loans, flexible terms

• Loan amounts between $5,000 and $45,000

• $100,000 revolving fund; first phase launched May 2022 with $100,000 from donations and a Generous Acts Fund grant from Adirondack Foundation

• Loans coupled with direct technical assistance such as bookkeeping, marketing assistance, and advanced business plan development

• Implemented in partnership with Foodshed Capital, a certified Community Development Financial Institution

The SOIL Loan Fund is no longer accepting applications — ANCA lists it as a past project and its former program page (adirondack.org/SOIL) now returns a 404. While active, interested producers contacted ANCA's Local Food Systems program at localfoodsystems@adirondack.org or 518.891.6200 for information about the application process, and Foodshed Capital handled financial due diligence and borrower information collection. Producers seeking ANCA financing today should look at the ANCA Bridge Loan Program on the same Access to Financing page. Foodshed Capital continues to offer its own low- and zero-interest lending (https://www.foodcap.org/lending), but its current site no longer names the SOIL Loan Fund.

• ANCA Access to Financing page: https://www.adirondack.org/access-to-financing/

• ANCA launch press release (May 17, 2022): https://www.adirondack.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Press-release\_-ANCA-Launches-SOIL-Loan-Fund-for-Farmers-and-Food-Producers.pdf

• First SOIL loan announcement (Sept 21, 2022): https://www.adirondack.org/press-release/anca-and-foodshed-capital-announce-first-small-farm-soil-loan/

• ANCA Food Systems program: https://www.adirondack.org/our-work/food-systems/

• Foodshed Capital: https://foodcap.org/