Projects For Which We've
Provided Financing:
Equity
Trust Fund Borrower Projects
Tryon Life Community Farm - Portland,
OR
New Town Florist Club - Gainesville, GA
Common Ground Farm - Dutchess County, NY
Just Food - New York City
H.O.M.E, Inc. - Orland, ME
Honduras Community Support Corporation - Honduras,
Central America
Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society
- Sapelo Island, GA
Centro Del Obrero - El Paso, TX
Cold Pond Community Land Trust - Acworth, NH
WINDBORNE FARM - Ft. Jones, CA
Santa Teresita School - Sensuntepeque, El Salvador
Emmaus Housing Denver, CO
Southside Community Land Trust - Providence, RI
The Food Project - Boston & Lincoln, MA
EcoVillage at Ithaca - Ithaca, NY
Athens Land Trust - Athens, GA
Good Humus Farm - Capay, CA
Tryon Life Community Farm - Portland, OR
Tryon
Life Community Farm teaches people of all ages about food systems, natural
building techniques, native habitat restoration, organic agriculture and
permaculture. The Equity Trust Fund was one of several other sources of
funding which together were able to finance TLC 's purchase of their farmland
to prevent it from being turned into a subdivision. TLC has now permanently
protected the land.New Town Florist Club - Gainesville, GA
The
loan committee just approved a loan to the New Town Florist Club, in Gainesville,
GA. Fifty years ago, a group of African American women established the New
Town Florist Club to provide aid to neighborhood families during bereavement.
They began by pooling resources to purchase funeral wreaths, and soon were
caring for the dying as well. They expanded to become vocal leaders for
civil rights and their community, taking on Klan intimidation, discriminatory
voting structures, lack of indoor plumbing, and inadequate housing. They
created a girls leadership program, and began to train youth in community
activism. Through all of this, the New Town Florist Club continued to provide
bouquets of roses for each funeral. Eventually the Club began to ask why
so many members of their community were dying, and why the same several
diseases were preying on the entire neighborhood. Why were so many people
in the community dying of lupus? Why so many were dying of the same type
of cancer? Read
moreCommon Ground Farm Dutchess County, NY
Dedicated to preserving the art of traditional, organic farming, the farm is committed to fostering community involvement in the process of growing and harvesting food. Equity Trust has made Common Ground Farm several loans over the years, enabling the farm to purchase better equipment and increase their growing capacity. The farm now provides just-picked vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers for 160 local families.
Just Food New York City, NY
Just
Food helps community gardeners market what they are growing, and they bring
together farmers and urban families to organize Community Supported Agriculture
projects (CSAs). Equity Trust has been able to provide Just Food with a
low-interest loan, enabling them to increase their capacity. Just Food now
works with 33 New York City CSAs that they have helped to set up. Read
more
H.O.M.E.,
Inc. - Orland, METhis community-based nonprofit, providing housing, jobs, and education to the rural poor in Maine used the money to acquire another home for its program that, house by house and family by family has grown over the last 20 years to include 41 houses and 67 families. Read more
Honduras
Community Support Corporation - Honduras, Central America
This remote community in northeastern Honduras wished to harvest forest products on a sustainable, legal basis but had no way to pay for the preparation and approval of a forest management plan. Their loan made it possible to harvest forest products that will help their community economically, without contributing to deforestation or altering the region's climate. Read more
Sapelo
Island Cultural and Revitalization Society - Sapelo Island, GA
SICARS used its loan to construct a community center and is also working to secure land as part of an effort to preserve itself as one of the last intact Gullah communities of the Georgia Sea Islands. Read more
Centro
Del Obrero - El Paso, TX Centro del Obrero provides services, advocacy, and economic opportunities for the low-income Hispanic residents of south-central El Paso. Their loan from Equity Trust enabled them to purchase a warehouse that now houses an ambitious range of programs providing jobs for immigrant workers, including a crafts collective and a trading company that imports the products of Mexican artisans. Read more
Cold Pond Community Land Trust - Acworth, NH
This horse-powered, biodynamic farm, now in its sixth year of community supported agriculture production used the loan to purchase additional land. Cold Pond CLT hopes to create a farming community that will provide access to agricultural land. Read more
WINDBORNE FARM - Ft. Jones, CA
The
Windborne CSA provides grain, beans, edible seeds, and cheese to 100 families.
The crops-oats, wheat, popcorn, sesame seeds and peanuts to name a few-are
cultivated with a team of Fjord draft horses using biodynamic methods. Our
loan for this farm provided funding for the start-up costs at a time when
few people thought it would be possible to market grain using the CSA model.
To our great excitement, Jennifer Green's farm has become extremely successful.
She has proved there is a viable market for CSA shares of grain, and Windborne
Farm has become a well-known model for sustainable grain farming. 
Santa Teresita School - Sensuntepeque, El Salvador
The school is composed of 22 teachers and 800 first through ninth grade girls. Students pay roughly $10/year to attend but this fee is waived for needy families and 75% of their families qualify as needy. With this loan, the school acquired a vacant lot to build more classrooms.
Emmaus Housing - Denver, CO
The Denver Catholic Worker has maintained a hospitality house and soup kitchen for homeless people in inner-city Denver for more than 20 years. Emmaus Housing is a nonprofit created by the Denver Catholic Worker to preserve access to affordable housing in their community where gentrification continues to displace low-income people. Emmaus Housing has used their loan from Equity Trust to purchase property and hold it in trust to provide secure, affordable housing. Read more
Southside
Community Land Trust - Providence, RI SCLT has environmental education programs for inner-city kids, and 14 community gardens serving over 200 low-income families. In addition, they have created a farm program which offers immigrant families the opportunity to start organic agricultural businesses. With a loan from the Equity Trust Fund, SCLT purchased their new main office building. Read more
The Food Project - Boston & Lincoln, MA
Each year the Food Project's programs involve 100 young people from the greater Boston area in growing and distributing food, while receiving leadership and job-skill training, environmental education, and training in personal development and community service. When the Food Project outgrew its office space, Equity Trust gave the organization a loan to buy a building in downtown Lincoln. Read more
EcoVillage at Ithaca - Ithaca, NY
EcoVillage at Ithaca has acquired 176 acres with plans to build three pedestrian co-housing neighborhoods around a village green, with 80% of the land preserved as wetland, woods, and farmland - including 9 acres leased to a 150-member CSA. The Equity Trust Fund was able to make a large loan for some of the project costs. Read more
Athens Land Trust - Athens, GA
Working in a low-income, primarily African American neighborhood threatened by gentrification in this university town, ALT is acquiring and rehabilitating homes to be sold to low-income families. Equity Trust has provided financing for the acquisition and rehabilitation of ALT homes, and has also made a loan to a group that came together, with the support of ALT, to purchase and preserve the last 5-acre parcel of undeveloped, wooded land in the neighborhood. Read more
Good Humus Farm - Capay, CA
Jeff and Annie Main have spent 20 years developing their organic farm on 20 acres. They operate a 100-member CSA, and market the bulk of their harvest at local farmers markets. Their plantings include 10 acres of annual crops, a large flower and herb garden, and a diverse orchard. Equity Trust has agreed to accept donations to a fund that will be used to purchase a conservation easement that will permanently protect the land. Their loan from Equity Trust enabled them to build a house to live in. Read more
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