Mount Pulaski Cooperative reaches total pledge goal, needs small contributions to implement plan

[September 07, 2021]  

In just six weeks, the newly formed Central Illinois FarmFED Co-op in Mount Pulaski has surpassed its total owner pledge goal and now must raise a set of smaller pledges to complete its obligations and put its business plan into action.

The cooperative launched its ownership campaign in mid-July, collecting pledges from interested owners via printed and online forms. In that time, over 100 individuals from Central Illinois and across the country have pledged to purchase more than $130,000 worth of stock in the cooperative. It took slightly over a month to surpass the $100,000 goal set by the cooperative board in its Articles of Incorporation.

The majority of pledges are from Central Illinois, especially Mount Pulaski and Logan County, but several are also from Chicago and the suburbs, and a handful have come from as far away as California, Texas, Virginia, and the New England states. Farmers are well-represented on the list, but pledgers have come from all walks of life, signifying broad support for a cooperative that is meant to serve as an economic driver in a small town. Much of that total amount has come in the form of large pledges rather than the many small pledges they are obligated to raise, and their efforts are now fixated on receiving those small, final contributions to begin implementation.

“The support we’ve received in such a short period of time for our ideas and concepts has overwhelmed our board,” says Tom Martin, the FarmFED Co-op’s board president. “We are truly humbled by people’s pledges to use their hard-earned dollars to become owners of this business with us.”

“It has all happened so fast that we’re just trying to keep up with sending pledge confirmation letters to all of these wonderful folks,” says Katie Bishop, owner of PrairiErth Farm in Atlanta, and a cooperative board member. “It’s awesome to see so much interest and faith in an idea that can truly be a game-changer for us and our fellow farmers.”
 

The cooperative has been in a planning stage since March 2020, when the Economic Development & Planning Board of Mount Pulaski hired two local farmers to create a business plan for a food hub in the city. With the community banding together to successfully open the Market on the Hill cooperative grocery store on their town square in July of last year, they saw the opportunity to go further, using the food economy to create more opportunities there. After a year of planning, the cooperative was registered with the state, and an interim board was formed to undertake next steps.

The cooperative plans to operate a fresh food processing facility that can bring in and freeze bulk quantities of produce grown by local farmers, such as sweet corn, peppers, carrots, or broccoli. Farmers can sell to the cooperative, or have their product custom-processed. The cooperative can then sell frozen local produce to local institutional buyers such as schools and hospitals or local retailers, using critical infrastructure to bridge a gap where local farms and larger buyers

are currently unable to work together. The cooperative will also operate a licensed commercial kitchen in the same facility to be rented out to local food entrepreneurs.
 

“People are sometimes surprised that something like this doesn’t already exist here,” says Jeff Hake, co-owner of Funks Grove Heritage Fruits & Grains in McLean and the cooperative’s interim co-manager. “In the end, it’s a simple, practical idea. It just requires a lot of planning and a lot of buy-in to make it a reality.”

According to the cooperative’s Articles of Incorporation, they must raise $100,000 in a specific set of share types: 50 Preferred Stock shares, 60 Common ‘A’ shares, and 200 Common ‘B’ shares. Preferred Stock shares offer a 4% annual return. Common shares have no minimum. As of now, Preferred and Common ‘A’ goals have been exceeded, but they have received only 143 of the 200 Common B shares they are obligated to raise. They will not start accepting payments for pledged shares until they receive pledges for the remaining 57 Common ‘B’ shares.

“Now’s the time when we dig deep in our community,” says Hake. “We’ve already seen people’s interest in what we’re trying to create here, and now we just need to go a little further. We’ve known of the need for this kind of facility for years, even decades, and this is our chance to make it happen and bring our community along with us.”

”With pledges from nine states and forty different communities, we know this can have a huge impact,” says Martin. “In return, we offer our pledge to create a successful, sustainable business that we hope will serve as a model for other similar enterprises across the state and nation.”

To learn more about the cooperative or become an owner, go to http://bit.ly/
FarmFEDPledge,  or send an email to [e-mail] .

[Text provided by Bill Thomas]