TL;DR
Developing the workforce by decentralizing agriculture in urban food deserts
Summary
The City Farmers is a nonprofit. Our mission is to decentralize agriculture by building commercial greenhouses on vacant city land and training individuals with criminal backgrounds to operate and ultimately own their own greenhouses.
We are fiscally sponsored by Fiscal Sponsorship Allies, Inc. a 501(c)3, that is incubating us to become our own 501(c)3.
How would you categorize this proposal?
Food Production & Innovation
Detailed Explanation
Our goal is to rent a warehouse in Chicago for 2+ years, grow 5,000 strawberry plants, and dial in our aeroponic growing system. From there we will take ownership of vacant land owned by the City of Chicago and construct an actual greenhouse.
The long term goal is to have a nonprofit that operates the workforce development and training, paired with a certified B-Corp that is 100% owned by the non-profit which manages the franchising, quality control operations, and wholesale purchasing negotiations.
We want to build multi-story greenhouses, finance the ownership to people who have gone through our training program, and in a few years have them take full ownership of the business with a nominal franchising fee for operational support.
We also see the ability to add additional service revenues into the business, by processing the produce into prepared salad/ meal kits, cold pressed juices, and by operating brick & mortar restaurants, food trucks, or partnering with ghost kitchens
Proliferation/Utility
The Foodnouns awarded us our founding grant via their Open Kitchen Round #3. As such, the Foodnouns F logo with Noggles is a permanent feature of our website.
We see this relationship deepening and expanding, particularly with the FoodNouns subDAO, including but not limited to co-branded products, featured sponsor placement across media and marketing materials, and IRL food events.
Team/Qualifications
Ian Wylie Hedrick - professional experience in sales/ fundraising, construction, design/ engineering
Anthony Garcia - criminal background from youth gang involvement, turned risk assessor for $50 million real estate transactions and Program Manager for the Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership’s LEADERS Training Academy
Charlie Brownrigg - former VP at JP Morgan. Career IT professional with previous government contracting experience requiring Top Secret clearance.
Avatar/Social Information
Twitter:
_iwylie
AnthonyGarcia_X
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iwylie/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-garcia-eth/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbrownriggiv/
Budget
Our goal for the year is ~150 ETH, or $250,000 USD.
- Rent a warehouse - $30,000
- Utilities (Electric, Gas, Water) - $30,000
- Purchase growing equipment - $60,000
- Purchase a company van - $35,000
- Contractors & Consulting - $50,000
- Salaries - $30,000-50,000