RSF Social Finance Announces a Loan to Corbin Hill Road Farm

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) August 24, 2011 - RSF Social Finance (RSF), a non-profit financial services organization providing capital to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises, announced today that it has made a loan to Corbin Hill Road Farm (CHRF) a supplier of fresh food to urban communities.

Corbin Hill Road Farm, a Community Shareholder Farm, re-imagines the relationship among consumers, farmers, and investors by empowering shareholders to become active economic citizens. Each shareholder acts simultaneously as a consumer of healthy produce, a decision maker in the farm's production, and an investor in the farm's future. The 95-acre farm in Schoharie County acts as a hub for distributing locally grown produce to overlooked markets in the South Bronx and Harlem. This new model of food production and consumption provides shareholders with a means of food sovereignty and economic empowerment, while contributing to the economy of a rural upstate county.   Unexpected growth has accelerated Corbin Hill Road Farm’s plans for building staff and critical infrastructure. The enterprise – which has to-date been funded by a combination of community members’ investments, a high-net-worth angel investment, and personally guaranteed bank loans – now requires additional capital to finance the near-term growth of the business.   “Corbin has created one of the first CSA models for low-income consumers that centers on community ownership,” says Taryn Goodman, Senior Manager of Impact Investing at RSF. “This type of endeavor is fundamentally changing how our food system works and it is exactly the kind of effort that RSF is committed to supporting.”   The capital for this loan was provided by RSF’s Transformation Portfolio. The Transformation Portfolio provides a platform for investors to convene as a learning group to co-create an investment portfolio. Donor Advisors, seeking to generate an impact through investing rather than grantmaking, meet quarterly to decide, as a group, how to invest.     About RSF Social Finance Located in San Francisco, CA, RSF Social Finance (RSF) is a non-profit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. Since 1984 the organization has made over $230 million in loans throughout the U.S. and Canada to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises working in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship.   RSF16358