When I took the entrepreneurship class last semester, we discussed the issues and “hurdles” of starting a new venture. I didn’t know at that time how valuable those discussions would be.
A lot has happened since my last communication. While it was happening, it would probably have been more confusing than enlightening for me to try to explain what was going on. Now that we are mostly through it, I will attempt to summarize and bring all up to speed.
While our project has received much publicity and many think it a worthwhile endeavor, we hit our first big hurdle….well, more like a wall. But, being naive about University policy we did not realize at the time that we had hit a wall. I speak of the hiring freeze that occurred here at MU.
The hiring freeze eliminated the way we had planned to hire 1-2 full time students to help with the CSA. With no income from the CSA, and still needing to make rent, our help had to find other employment. We began the struggle for life, started to fall behind our planting schedule…, and had to pare back our goals. But, we have pulled together as a group and have plants growing in three hoop houses. We have work days scheduled for both this weekend and next weekend….and much additional planting will take place over the next 10 days.
We have benefited from the counsel of Dr. Garton, Lisa Wimmenauer, Tim Reinbott, and others. With their help we have made several changes.
1. We are becoming a student group. The name will be Students for Community Agriculture.
2. Once club status is granted on April 28, we can receive a waiver from the hiring freeze, and hire if we still want/need to do so.
3. We will probably not operate a CSA model this year.
a. We CAN sell crops we grow at Olivet; the “How” is still under discussion.
b. Members of Olivet Church can work in the fields with us students, if there is interest on their part….pending a couple of legal issues.
c. Donations of food to the Food Bank are still permissible and encouraged.
We sincerely appreciate the support we have received as we “slogged” through a number of unanticipated issues. We value the extracurricular learning this project is giving us (most of the time). But, I must admit there are times it felt like the hurdles were pretty high.
More later,
Andrew
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3 comments:
Glad to hear that you got things worked out. It will be exciting to see how things work out this first year. Keep us updated on the blog.
Hi Andrew! Your group might also look into grant funding. There are many grant opportunities to sift through. However, grant-funded positions seem to be one area the hiring freeze has not affected. This could make your organization more "sustainable" in the future as well.
Keep up the good work!
You guys are amazing! You've done some great work at the farm and at running some university hurdles. I'm glad everything is working out however it may. Mary H.
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