FarmWorks’ targeted loans cultivate success for Nova Scotia food producers
In the heart of Nova Scotia, farmers face formidable challenges, with many struggling to stay afloat.
Linda Best, executive director of FarmWorks, underscores the gravity of the situation, noting: “Even with all our efforts, we don’t have enough fingers to plug all the holes in the dyke.”
Despite the dedicated efforts of FarmWorks, which offers low-interest loans to Nova Scotia’s farmers and local food-based businesses, the financial landscape remains daunting.
“There isn’t much help for Nova Scotia farmers,” Best laments. “About 10 per cent of local farmers would say they are ‘doing well’ financially, with most net incomes falling below zero.”
FarmWorks is not just a lifeline; it is a catalyst for change, aiming to bolster small-scale farmers, enabling them to grow and thrive in a competitive marketplace. With a track record of supporting over 150 clients and disbursing more than $10 million in loans, FarmWorks exemplifies how targeted support can invigorate local agriculture, fostering a sustainable food economy that benefits both farmers and the wider community.
Fuelling a food truck
Sean Crouse, the Tatamagouche-based owner-operator of Moth + Moon Farms, knows well the impact that funding offered by FarmWorks has made. “FarmWorks is really the only reason we have been able to do what we are doing,” he says.
Moth + Moon Farms is a farm-to-table soup and sandwich food truck for a few days a week and a staple at the Tatamagouche Farmers’ Market on weekends. After receiving its loan two years ago to purchase the truck and help with the cost of equipment and licensing, Moth + Moon experienced so much growth that it has turned again to FarmWorks to help with its latest expansion: the purchase of five acres near its home base where Crouse will plant fruit trees, vegetables and eventually raise chickens.
“Working with FarmWorks is not like a traditional lender,” he continues. “Senior board members have come out to the truck specifically to get to know me and my business. You become one of their ‘family,’ and they really root for you to succeed.”
CEDIFs take root
Through the 1990s, the government of Nova Scotia noticed that small businesses were struggling to secure adequate funding to start or grow their operations; this was especially true in farming and food-based endeavours. This precipitated the launch of Community Economic Development Investment Funds (CFEIDs), of which FarmWorks is one.
FarmWorks Co-op shareholders pay into a blind trust and receive a provincial tax credit of 35 per cent. The purpose of the blind trust is to keep investors from pointing their money towards one client in particular and to keep distribution equal along the lines of need. The invested funds are disbursed to clients at a six per cent interest rate, to help those who have approached the co-op at any given point throughout the year. In the summer of 2024, there were approximately 100 active clients, and the fund had loaned out $5.86 million.
In the 12-plus years that FarmWorks has existed, it has disbursed over $10 million to over 150 clients. Best says that the co-op has sustained some losses in the process, but “never more than a commercial bank; there is some churn, and the challenges facing farmers are significant, even with our help.”
According to a 2023 survey posted on the FarmWorks website, “The importance of FarmWorks loans is clear as 67% [of respondents] indicated that their business would not have succeeded and 26% considered success would have been only somewhat likely without the loan. Overall, 89% [of respondents] said the loan enabled their business to expand production.”
Another statistic from the same survey says that FarmWorks clients generated approximately $2.65 million in annual gross revenues and have created over 420 jobs.
Crouse says, “The impact they’ve had on our lives, my family’s life, is just incredible.”
For FarmWorks staff and donors, though, the evident strain on farmers only pushes them to do more and make more of an impact. “We can help,” Best muses. “We can give farmers a sense of relief that someone will help you out. That’s what makes it all worth it.”
Many of the FarmWorks clients take the community investment they receive and turn it around, giving more back to the community. Some of their responses from the 2023 survey, when asked about such reinvestments, include: becoming a gathering place for the community; encouraging consumption of local products, and encouraging healthy lifestyles; donations to food banks; hosting fundraising events and more.
Annually, about 225,000 FarmWorks shares are available for sale. Interested investors can find more information through their website, farmworks.ca. FarmWorks Co-op is one of 41 community economic development investment funds in Nova Scotia.
