Cal’s Crops needs your help!

UPDATE AUG 21st:

We have a few weeks left to help us reach our stretch goal! We begin growing for CHU in October, after we have moved into our new location! Thanks again for sharing and contributing, we are forever grateful.

Alex

UPDATE AUG 12th:

Hey folks, it’s Alex again. I want to start this message off by saying thank YOU. We were able to reach our funding goals in a short amount of time. The team at Cal’s Crops want to thank all of our friends and family, customers, clients and community members who have helped us by sharing and donating. We love you. We understand that there are many deserving organizations and businesses who need help at this time and we don’t take your decision to stand with us lightly.

We will be keeping this go fund me open until the first week of September, in which time we will pivot towards bringing more attention to the team at Community Helpers United Inc. We are hoping to extend the time in which we can readily bring fresh produce grown directly for CHU and their affiliate organizations. With your help, we will be able to keep essential space open for longer to ensure we can keep growing and donating fresh greens for them until we have reached our next expansion goals, which will allow us to do so without financial support.

Thank you for sharing our gfm, for your kind words of support and for donating.

With love,

Alex, Levi, Cody and Noah.

Hi folks, my name is Alex Kohut. I am the CEO and co-founder of a local Winnipeg vertical farm called “Cal’s Crops” and we need your help! This is a long read so I’ll include a short version at the very bottom.

First a little about us.

We are a self funded organic vertical farm that uses closed circuit automated systems. We grow food in organic substrate and utilize soil based bacterium to grow nutrient rich Microgreens, herbs and salad greens. We use compostable packaging, organic seeds and are on our way to creating our own nearly closed loop soil recycling system.

We started our journey as a pandemic business. I had some friends who felt similarly to how I did about the way our food system works and feared the outcome of a world rapidly changing due to the pandemic. We were worried about the prospects of rising food costs and the increasingly difficult and variable ridden grow seasons. We share a collective dissatisfaction with how our current trade model degrades the nutrient density of fresh produce from harvest to table that most Manitoban’s get from their grocery stores. Using some of the money we received from CERB, we got together and created “Cal’s Crops” an acronym of the first 3 founders (Cody, Alex, Levi). We were later joined by my good friend Noah; an animation and graphic designer expert with a lengthy history working on ag-related marketing.

We have, since our inception 2 years ago been working tirelessly to be able to provide produce that lasts longer on the shelves and in your fridges. Foods that are grown year round and are rich in nutrient. That never travels over 8 hours to its final destination. We strive to grow to a size that will allow us to regularly grow fresh produce directly for food banks and non-profits with food security mandates. To make change where change is needed most— bringing access to fresh foods to more Manitobans.

However today, we find ourselves in a tricky situation. Early in May we were told that the company we had been sharing space with since January had to wind down their Winnipeg operations. We vetted a number of options for new locations and found some folks whose desire for fostering small businesses and community building matched our own wants. We deliberated for a long time, turning down some other great options and finally landed on the one we thought made the most sense. We packed down our little farm and moved into the new building. Two days after moving, city by-law officials came and shut down the building. Turns out the building hadn’t received the correct occupancy permit and we were forced to have to move again. We sat for 2 weeks looking at other locations and searching for opportunities. Luckily, our old location was being leased by the non-profit CHU: Community Helpers Unite inc. (a little more about CHU below). We were able to move back into our old location temporarily (for the next few months), despite our best efforts nearly all our mature leafy greens and herbs died before being transported and we have been licking our wounds since.

We find ourselves in an untimely crossroads. We are a couple months away from being back to the production capacity that will allow us to start properly growing as an independent company. We be are currently starting our basil grow so we can stary servicing our existing accounts (thank you to the chefs and owners for the patience you’ve given us) but having to pause servicing our existing accounts and pushing back on the start time for new accounts we were about to take on as well as the several moves, has put us in a tricky spot financially

In order to get us safely through to the other side, we need to raise some extra money to help pay off the lease for the hydroponic units we grow on, as well as some extra money for the first and last months rent for a new location. While we get our capacity up. We have come to the decision to ask our community for help. I never thought we would be in the position of having to ask for help but I am not too proud to know we need it. I also believe that we as Cal’s Crops are not completely powerless and can do good in return to help the community we run our business in. For every dollar donated to our go-fund-me we will be growing and providing fresh produce, dollar for dollar to our friends at CHU over the course of the coming months. Our hope is that this fundraiser not only helps us in our time of need, but also a brings more attention the incredible direct action Brandy and team do on a day to day basis through CHU. We plan on being transparent and posting our progress often and with regularity. We are hoping to continue this practice long after we reach our pledge goal. The money you provide will help us weather the storm and get to our long term goals of providing more locally grown food for more people and do good for the north end community and non-profit partners that CHU directly impacts, immediately.

We have so many plans with our partners in the works in the coming months and years for helping create viable food security networks in southern and northern Manitoba that we can replicate across the country. Projects that have the stamp of approval from numerous people, politicians and companies that have the power to help us affect real change! All of which may or may not happen with us, but boy would be nice to be apart of it!

For more about our friends at CHU:

excerpt taken from https://u-channel.ca/serving-the-community-upcycling-food-and-providing-food-services/

“Brandy Bobier founded Community Helpers Unite Inc (CHU). The Winnipeg non-profit organization has three goals.

1) Open a permitted community kitchen to upcycle food into meals;

2) Deliver FREE cooking and grocery classes to marginalized groups;

3) Provide volunteer opportunities to those with barriers to employment.”

additional articles:

https://winnipegsun.com/news/news-news/north-end-community-kitchen-aims-to-help-people-achieve-food-security/wcm/1bd4f02f-89be-45b1-b323-6d73dbcee57e/amp/

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/times/2021/05/14/new-community-kitchen-coming-to-north-end

For those that skipped ahead:

After a string of bad luck: botched moves and major crop failure, Cal’s Crops is raising funds to get back on its feet. For every dollar donated, Cal’s will grow and donate fresh produce dollar for dollar to CHU over the course of the next few months, hopefully continuing the practice long after our promise is fulfilled. $500 - $1,000 will go towards our monthly debt payment for the hydroponic units and the rest will be going towards the rent of a new long term space!