Support the Peer Network<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″]\n[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”3875″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/peer-network\/”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”3871″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/uniting-nationally\/”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”3869″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/nikkis-story\/”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”3873″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”#desert”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″]\n[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n Jay Jones<\/span> Donate<\/a> Learn about the Network<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][vc_column_text]\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1450318634298{background-color: #fafafa !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Peer Network is the movement infrastructure for non-extractive finance. Support the Peer Network [\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/6″] [\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3806,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3782"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4675,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3782\/revisions\/4675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to Beat a Food Desert<\/h1>\n
And Save Your Community at the Same Time<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1450318569723{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”3789″ img_size=”300×300″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_column_text]\n
\n President, Renaissance Community Cooperative<\/span><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1449616433139{padding-right: 20px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1450365641070{padding-top: -40px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: -40px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;}”]\n“What do you do when the last access to healthy food leaves town?<\/em><\/h4>\n
Organize locally, join your peers nationally, and build it yourself.”<\/em>
\n-Jay Jones, President, RCC<\/h4>\n<\/h5>\n
After the Winn-Dixie closed, our neighborhood was declared a food desert. We recently\u00a0organized to keep a landfill out of our community, so we thought, maybe we could organize to\u00a0solve this too?<\/h5>\n
We tried to keep the store from leaving, we tried courting\u00a0other chains to come, but to no avail.<\/h5>\n
We realized it was up to us — together we’d build our own supermarket as a\u00a0community owned cooperative.\u00a0We had the organization and the inspiration, but there was the obvious\u00a0hole: where would the money come from?<\/a><\/h3>\n
That’s when we learned people were forming the Southern Reparations Loan Fund (SRLF),\u00a0and that it was a peer in The Working World’s Peer Network. As part of the network, we could\u00a0access training and capital for businesses that maximize community benefit rather than\u00a0investor profit. That sounded like us.<\/h5>\n
The Southern Reparations Loan Fund and its Peer Network came through: they looked over\u00a0our business plan, and they provided capital patient enough for us to get off the ground and\u00a0only repay once we are successful.<\/h5>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”3806″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1449681680784{padding-top: -40px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: -40px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;}”]\n
They gave us more than money though, they helped us realize we could actually do this. That’s how it feels when people believe in you, when you’re not just alone.<\/a><\/h3>\n
Next summer, my neighborhood will have the\u00a0Renaissance Community Cooperative, and I’ll\u00a0watch the food desert vanish into the dust the big\u00a0chains left behind. After we open our doors, it’ll\u00a0be our turn to pass the support\u00a0to the next\u00a0community project: you can do this, you can do\u00a0anything you organize to do, and you’re not\u00a0alone.<\/h5>\n
Thank you for your support,
\nJay\u00a0Jones<\/h5>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1449610726917{margin-top: -30px !important;margin-bottom: -30px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][vc_column_text]\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]\nThe Renaissance Community Cooperative was built with support from peers and people like you.<\/h2>\n
Let’s do it again in more communities.<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”12px”][vc_column_text]\n