Whole Foods Local Producer Loan Program

The Midwest Region of Whole Foods Market strongly supports local food production and local communities and is pleased to request proposals from local food producers for our Local Producer Loan Program. This project gives farmers and artisanal food producers the opportunity to apply for up to a $100,000 loan for expansion and capital expenditure projects. This is part of a $10 million national loan program. Whole Foods Market Midwest has partnered with Sustain and FamilyFarmed.org to publicize and promote this program. Bridget Jones at Whole Foods Market Midwest will be the contact for producers in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

This program will expand the availability of quality local food products by giving farmers and artisanal food producers access to capital that may not be available through existing financial channels. Our goal is to minimize fees, interest rates, and paperwork. Most of the loans will go to producers who currently sell to Whole Foods Market. Loans may also be made to other regional producers who are looking to expand their operations. We hope that such loans will result in a long term buying relationship between the producer and Whole Foods Market, but this is not mandatory.

• Must be regional producers of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, or artisanal food products.

• Must meet Whole Foods Market’s Quality Standards

• Funds must be used for expansion and capital expenditures, not operating expenses (e.g., to buy more animals, invest in new equipment/infrastructure, or expand crops)

• All meat or dairy producers must meet Whole Foods Market’s Animal Compassionate standards

• Producers must have adequate cash flow to service debt and a viable business plan for expansion

• An existing relationship with Whole Foods Market is a plus.

How to apply — Whole Foods routes all LPLP inquiries through one national registration form, "Registration: WFM Lending Program", linked from the program page as "Get started": https://forms.office.com/r/Ns6DSi2t9X

On the loan range — $1,000–$100,000 is the targeted / typical band, not a hard ceiling. Whole Foods' own announcement of the program's $25 million funding commitment states "Typical loans range from $1,000 to $100,000 and have fixed low-interest rates", and that same release describes a $400,000 loan as "one of the program's highest loans to date". Read award.min / award.max as the typical band rather than absolute limits.

• Loan amounts targeted between $1,000 and $100,000

• Loan amount not greater than 80% of total project cost

• Interest rate based on Prime Rate (currently 8.25%) with current range of 5% to 9%, fixed or variable with annual re-sets

• Term and repayment of loan tied to life of asset financed

• Whole Foods maintains first lien position on asset financed

• Monthly payments required after termination of any grace period

• No penalty for early repayment

• $65 processing fee to cover administrative expenses, including obtaining a credit report

• Approval and terms dependent primarily on risk assessment, type of product, and use of proceeds

• May require simultaneous execution of a purchase agreement

• Producer may apply for additional financing if initial loan is in good standing after one year

• Loans are subject to review of loan committee and including findings of a site visit.

• Interest rate can be lowered by 1-2 percentage points during the life of the loan if payments are timely.

• Whole Foods Market, Inc. reserves the right to alter any and all aspects of the program.

Route — one online registration form, and nothing else. The program page carries a single application control: a "Get started" button sitting under the heading "Interested in applying? Register here!" It opens a Microsoft Forms registration at https://forms.office.com/r/Ns6DSi2t9X. There is no regional intake, no downloadable application and no named officer to write to — Whole Foods describes LPLP as lending "to small-scale, local or emerging producers across the U.S. and Canada," and every one of them starts at that one form. (An older Midwest-only application mailbox that once appeared on this record was removed in August 2026 as almost certainly dead; do not chase it.)

Registration comes first; the page does not describe what follows. Whole Foods publishes no next step, no timeline for a response, and no stage-by-stage process. Expect the form to be an intake questionnaire rather than the loan application itself.

Timing — no deadline and no application round are published. Nothing on the program page names an opening or closing date, a cycle, or a funding round. Intake reads as standing rather than scheduled, so there is no date to wait for and nothing to miss; check the page for the current link rather than waiting for an announcement.

What to assemble — not published. There is no document checklist, budget template or required-forms list anywhere on the program page. What this record's Terms field does tell you about the process after registration is worth reading before you start: a $65 processing fee covering a credit report, review by a loan committee, and a site visit, with approval turning "primarily on risk assessment, type of product, and use of proceeds." So be ready to describe the capital project itself — the equipment or infrastructure, its total cost, and how the operation will service the debt. Note also that funds are for expansion and capital expenditure, not operating expenses, so frame the request that way.

Who to ask. No phone number or email for application questions is published on the program page — recorded here as genuinely unpublished rather than omitted. General routes into the company are customer care (https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/customer-service) and the Information and Potential Suppliers page (https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info/information-potential-suppliers). If the registration form itself is down, that supplier page is the only other published door.

• Guidelines and Application