Michigan Good Food Fund launches, ready to serve and grow the food industry
Michigan Good Food Fund ready to provide financial and technical resources for healthy food production.
If you consider yourself a “foodie,” you should be very interested in this story. No, it’s not about the latest sandwich or food truck, but it is about a new program that can provide the resources to help everyone who is involved in building the businesses that aspire to provide healthy food production throughout Michigan.
The Michigan Good Food Fund (MGFF) is a public-private partnership loan and grant fund that provides financing and business assistance to healthy food production, distribution, processing, and retail projects that benefit underserved communities throughout Michigan.
Oran B. Hesterman, CEO of Fair Food Network, says the fund will serve a variety of needs within the supply chain: “from real estate to operations to renovation.” He says the fund will work with pre-revenue entrepreneurs and existing businesses, providing not only grants and loans, but also technical assistance through workshops and webinars. The only caveat is that participants must be a Michigan-based business.
To help spread the word about MGFF, the organization has been on the road, hosting a series of launch events throughout the state.
Paul Krumpe of Grand Rapids-based Cultured Love participated in one of the launch events for the Michigan Good Food Fund. Cultured Love produces specialty sauerkrauts made with 100 percent organic ingredients, a business that Krumpe founded with his wife Jodie in 2014.
Krumpe says the fund has the potential to significantly help small producers grow their markets by providing the resources to increase processing and helping them “sell more product.” He says the key is to get small producers to the point of profitability and sustainability, where the owners then can spend more time on on training, education and creating systemic changes so that everyone can have access to “good foods.”
For more information about MGFF go to http://www.migoodfoodfund.org.
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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