Rising Sun Produce Reopening Fundraiser
Donation protected
Welcome everyone to the Rising Sun Grand Reopening Fundraiser! Firstly, we would like to deeply thank everyone who contributed to our initial reconstruction fund following the fire. Without that support we would never have been able to get here and for that we will always be grateful.
For those who are new to our page, in February of this year Rising Sun Produce experienced a fire on our loading dock which caused significant damage to our outer patio and interior roof. Due to this Rising Sun has had to close our doors for the first time since 1979. However with the help of our community our doors are close to reopening and we could not be more excited!
- Updates: So, we have been quiet for a while but inside the store it has been a near daily process of getting to this point - after a lot of elbow grease, masks and garbage bags we cleaned up the debris, ash and water from the fire. Heartbreakingly we also trashed the vast majority of our inventory, including the dry groceries. We have also had to deal with multiple break-ins which undermined our progress and caused damage.
In better news however we have contracted a construction company and are currently waiting on city permits to clear, once that is done we will be able to start reconstruction and from there things will begin to move very fast! But we still need your help.
- The Situation: The unfortunate reality is that a large reconstruction and months of closure is a huge financial strain on any small business. While insurance did offset some of our costs, the payout only covered one-fifth of our losses. We appreciate what we did receive but it simply is not going to be enough for our reopening expenses. As an example we have recently purchased registers in anticipation of getting back up and running asap - however just two POS terminals cost 10k dollars. And if that figure is eye-watering to read you can imagine how it felt to buy! Beyond the large purchases there are also many smaller expenses both behind and ahead of us. Things like dumpster rentals, professional cleaning services for our backwall cold shelf, refrigeration costs for our remaining inventory and the purchasing of new inventory.
We say all this because it is extremely important to us to be as transparent as possible about what is happening behind the scenes. You deserve to understand exactly how your money will be helping us reopen our doors.
- The Future: As said early, reconstruction is imminent and we are extremely excited to be back to serving the Ravenna/U-District community. Although we do not have an exact date yet we intend to celebrate our reopening with a neighborhood bash in our parking lot! Everyone will be welcome to attend, we want our community to know just how much we appreciate them and how much we are looking forward to continuing the work we’ve been doing since 1979.
Thank you, for everything -
Rising Sun Produce
Organizer
Bud Goodwin
Organizer
Seattle, WA