Free Union Farm
Jamesville, NC
0% interest loan funded March 2022
Vera Brown Farm is located on 52 acres of land in a historically Black, economically distressed region of eastern North Carolina where agricultural land is at high risk of land grabbing and development. The Rural Beacon Initiative—a Black-owned organization working to bridge climate investment and social equity—created a multi-year vision to transform the acreage into a regional sustainability hub, demosntration farm, and community space that will offer educational programming and increase food access in the region. In collaboration with Croatan Institute and Slow Money NC, Foodshed Capital stepped in to assist Rural Beacon with a loan to purchase the property. The loan is literally new territory for FoodCap, representing our first (but certainly not last) loan in support of land acquisition.