Dear Community,

Access Café is an expansive, multi-faceted vision of a community resilience hub and a welcoming place to engage with a diverse, living culture. We’ve rapidly brought this dream into reality through our grit, determination, deep care, good fortune, and incredible community support.

We have given this vision its initial form as a café on the Main Street of Montpelier, VT. In just two and a half months we have been able to:

Provide essential services to community: Access is a place to find respite when the warming shelter is not open and free, handmade meals and drinks for those in need via pay-it-forward tokens. We provide a container for mutual aid organizing and support without bureaucracy.
Support our local ecosystem and economy: We work with hyper-local and organic farmers and food professionals to create our menu of specialty coffee, medicinal herbal drinks, West African stews, and locally catered pastries. We prioritize woman and BIPOC-owned farms and businesses because we center building a multicultural community.
Build Community Resilience: We host alcohol-free night life space where folks can show up authentically and connect meaningfully. We collaborate with community wellness practitioners to offer supportive and educational events where community can receive support and learn how to support themselves.

The needs and desires of Central Vermont’s community are substantial. We hope to continue meeting these needs and grow our own capacity to support community in tending to their agency and well-being. This includes expanding our free offerings, equipping ourselves for crisis support, and deepening our resilience building programming. In order to do this we are needing to transition from a primarily for-profit financial structure to formally becoming a Community Resilience Hub. Thankfully, we have been offered fiscal sponsorship from an incredible, local organization which will allow us to apply for grants to fund this essential work.

In reflecting deeply on our current location, which is positioned within the floodplain, we are considering the difficult decision to leave 64 Main St. at the end of February. We are planning on transitioning our operation to a mobile apothecafé so that we can move more nimbly and provide necessary mobile services to the community during local crisis. This can look like access to a mobile generator, free herbal support, and emergency food responses. We are also open to the idea of finding another location that is out of the waterway and more suitable to our needs.

No matter what, we intend to continue cultivating beautiful arts & cultural experiences through pop-up collaborations with local organizations. As the seasons change and it warms up, we hope to spend most of our time outdoors gathering with you. Next winter we may decide to rent an auxiliary space so we can once again host indoor gatherings.

With our values of reciprocity and self-determination as our guiding principles we know we must work with our community: to seek your input and your support in myriad forms. We invite you to come out to our community forum on Sunday February 9th 11am-12:30pm to discuss the future of Access with us and give us your input.

If you believe in this collective dream of Access and want to help keep us alive as we transition to this new structure, you can support us by:

Donating to our fundraising to support our operations while we work on getting fiscally sponsored and move into applying for grants.
Sharing this letter and telling our story to folks you know who want and are able to financially support us.

Detailed Financial Overview

Here is a breakdown of our expenses during the transition:

6 weeks of a living wage salary for five individuals (taxes included): $31,098 (for more information on living wages see: https://livingwage.mit.edu/)
1 month Cost of Goods Sold: $8,946 (many of these funds go directly to small farms and businesses in Vermont and/or local distributors of VT food items)
Cost of transitioning out of the space (rent and utilities until March 1st): $6,018
8-hour Financial Foundations training for 1-2 team members as offered through A BookKeeping Collective: $1,920

— for a total of $47,982.

Any additional support will be thoughtfully allocated to maximize impact. Here’s how we’re stewarding your investment:

Operational Stability: Supporting essential costs like staffing, utilities, and materials, as well as ensuring we can cover the costs of transitioning our operation.
Financial Planning & Education: Accessing educational resources to build robust financial strategies that ensure sustainability and transparency. We are actively partnering with experts and community advisors to make sound financial decisions.
Community Programs: Expanding our arts, education, and food justice programming to reach more people across our bioregion.
Infrastructure Development: Strengthening our capacity to respond to ecological challenges, such as floods, and to support reparative work in underserved communities.

How You Can Help

Any amount you can contribute matters. If you can’t donate, please share this letter with someone who can. In this time of ecological and economic uncertainty, we need systems that reflect the interdependence of our communities and the ecologies that hold us. By investing in Access, you are contributing to projects that address immediate needs while planting seeds for long-term resilience. We invite you to make your contribution today. Together, we can cultivate an ecology of care, resilience, and transformation—a future where everyone thrives.

With gratitude and hope,

The Access Ecologies Team

Rhizome, Community Weaver

Olivia, Access Tender & Spiritual Herbalist

Fenix, Spiritual Herbalist & Governance Facilitator

Raph, Creative Enchanter

Kalé, Hearthtender

Read on to learn more about the team...

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Community Resilience Hub Needs Your Financial Support During a Big Transition

By Access Café

Community Resilience Hub Needs Your Financial Support During a Big Transition

Support Access Café: Cultivating Resilience Across Our Bioregion

Team Members