Like an electric eel
Last week, we all piled in the car to drive to Atlanta for an Alien Mardi Gras birthday party, as one does, to celebrate my best friend (40, in earth years) and her daughter (3, also earth years). I pulled out my electric eel unitard, my oldest did our face paint, and I repurposed some beloved Beyoncé concert attire to outfit my two little ladies for their alien debut. I hadn’t given much thought to how my kids would react to 100 people’s interpretations of extraterrestrial merriment, but by the time the second line was parading around the block I was sitting on the sidelines with my youngest as she tried to rationalize why she was hesitant to join in because she “loves singing and dancing in my classroom at home in Takoma Park.”
It’s exhausting embracing the new while rationalizing how it fits or doesn’t fit into our understanding of the world. I had created a narrative in my head that my love of the quirky can shield my kids from fear around new experiences. (Selfishly, I am also just acutely exhausted, and my needs and desires can be out of step with the actual needs of my young family.) But after 45 minutes, four juice boxes, and some pizza, the new started to feel comfortable, not as scary, maybe even bordering on fun.
Starting my own business certainly feels like an Alien Mardi Gras. Foreign, fun, more than a little scary, in desperate need of more juice boxes. Yet, its also an opportunity to embrace being in step with the needs of the others, while remaining firmly in step with my own needs and interests. So, I am reverse engineering the typical request for proposals, and instead presenting the proposal and requesting the funding. Much like an Alien Mardi Gras, this may not make sense. But much like an Alien Mardi Gras, so much of it does.
Over the past four years, the USDA has made unprecedented investments in our food system, yet despite substantial efforts from the USDA to mitigate inequities, socially disadvantaged and small-and mid-sized food and farm businesses encounter significant challenges accessing, absorbing and managing capital, maintaining cash flow amid USDA reimbursement timelines, and accessing complementary capital to commence and maintain programs.
While the USDA employs partial advance payments on a case-by-case basis, without strategic intervention and expanded capacity, financing limitations can present insurmountable barriers for socially disadvantaged farmers and small- and mid-size organizations. Strategic support from aligned stakeholders – philanthropy, impact investors, and CDFIs – would significantly enhance the efficacy of USDA funding and access for disadvantaged groups. Philanthropy and the private sector have the flexibility to unlock substantial capital to address critical financing gaps to help farmers, nonprofits and mission-driven entrepreneurs’ access and implement federal funding, yet the field is lacking a coordinated strategy and approach informed by key stakeholders. While innovative solutions have been pursued to date (notably, the SHOT Fund), a centralized resource-guide of tested strategies and potential solutions does not exist.
Without access to flexible and responsive capital, mission-driven businesses and organizations face significant challenges to utilize USDA funding for program implementation, particularly limiting their ability to scale to the magnitude required to drive systemic change in our food system. This fundamentally jeopardizes USDA and private funder investments, and in doing so, perpetuates a false narrative that mission-driven and socially disadvantaged entrepreneurs can’t achieve scale and financial viability.
For the full version of the proposal, head here. IvyWild Strategies is seeking funding support for this project – please reach out to victoria@ivywildstrategies.com to express interest or request additional information.
