Chaffee County Commissioners approved $2,448,241 in grant awards to 18 recipients during the Spring 2021 Chaffee Common Ground grant funding cycle. Recommendations by the Citizens Advisory Committee were approved recently.
Twenty applications requesting $2.92 million were received. The grant funding package includes $2,015,600 for forest health and wildfire resilience, $249,640 to sustain rural landscapes, and $183,001 for recreation management that protects watersheds and landscapes in Chaffee County. Matching cash and in-kind funds total $10.5 million.
This marked the third funding cycle since the ballot measure generating Common Ground revenues passed in 2018. To date, more than $5 million has been awarded to 23 local groups and partnerships for 36 programs and projects. Matching investments for these grants will bring $22 million in value to the community by 2026.Â
SOIL is an acronym for Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally.
Taschâs newest project provides zero percent loans to local farmers, ranchers and food producers. The capital comes from community members who become impact investors with the investment of $250.
SOIL is part of the Slow Money movement, which over its first decade catalyzed the flow of more than $70 million to almost 700 small organic farms and food enterprises via dozens of local groups, a press release stated.
SOIL Sangre de Cristo follows the same model to support the local food economy and local producers by offering no-interest loans. The loan fund is made up of the contributions from investor members.
Candace Krebs
The Ag Journal
When Jessica Larriva moved to Monte Vista to provide full-time caregiving to her mother, she needed a home-based enterprise that offered flexibility.
She found the solution through Colorado’s Cottage Food Act, which allows her to sell artisan-style breads made in her own home kitchen.
Larriva talked about her business and her interest in heritage grains during a monthly webinar series hosted by the Sangre de Cristo chapter of SOIL, which stands for Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally, a nonprofit set up to provide peer-to-peer lending.
The chapter uses tax-deductible donations to provide interest-free loans to area farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs. When the loan is repaid, the money goes back into a revolving fund to support other food entrepreneurs, as determined by the members.