Help us bring a grocery shop to German Village!

Hi, my name is Jamie Pritchard and I am the owner of WIT Farm. You can always find me at the German Village Farmers Market and now I am opening up a grocery shop in German Village. The Farmer's Larder will be focused on locally sourced good with a strong emphasis on whole-animal, responsibly raised meats from WIT Farm. The goal is 90% locally made, raised and grown food and 10% gourmet items we cannot source locally. We will also have a strong focus on prepared foods for the busy people of German Village.

Imagine this - suddenly you have a couple of friends coming over for dinner and you have nothing planned. Take a quick walk over to The Farmer's Larder and pick up some fresh pasta, pre-made meatballs, a sauce, a salad kit and some ready-to-heat garlic bread. In 15 minutes you have a fresh, hot, restaurant quality meal in the comfort of your own home. And maybe some decadent cheesecake for dessert?? Easy peasy.

Help us get started - traditional SBA loans can take several months to be funded and we have an audacious goal of opening on Independence Day. Here's a quick breakdown of everything we need to get started. And that's based on not needing much renovations.

Lease and Build Out - $25,000
Equipment - $25,000
Initial Inventory - $50,000
Working Capitol and Licenses - $35,000

That's a total of $135,000 before any real renovations. Our initial goal is $50,000 with a stretch goal of $100,000. We will also be looking at local lenders and bootstrapping the rest ourselves. Just like I did nine years ago when I started livestock farming.

While every penny truly helps us get that much closer to our goal I would really love to give back to our big donors!

$250: When you donate $250 you will get an invitation to our super exclusive VIP night before our soft open. Enjoy tons of samples, chatting with your local producers and a gift bag filled with more local goodies.

$500: Enjoy the VIP night plus take home a Meat Bundle from WIT Farm.

$1,000: Enjoy the VIP night, a Meat Bundle and two $100 gift cards for The Farmer's Larder.

$5,000: Enjoy the VIP night, a Meat Bundle, two $100 gift cards for The Farmer's Larder and a free year of Farm Shares, our month meat subscription!

First off, massive thanks to everyone who has donated. It means the world to me that you believe in the vision (so much so that the average donation is $250!).

My sister (fundraising and development icon) mentioned I might want to let everyone know (in detail) what your money is going towards. I promise those dollars are not out there in the ether - they are doing real work!

So let's talk about it. You've already crushed my first two goals before I ever got to get this information together.

✅$1,000: I wanted a quick, easy and achievable goal. That's money being used to open up a business bank account. Kinda useless to do that without any dang money.

✅$2,500: Now that we got a good chunk I will be working on those licenses and insurance. Some of these feel like the "hidden costs" of opening up a new business. Getting an EIN (employer identification number) is free, but registering your business for Ohio taxes is not. Then you've got to think about lots of different types of insurance, food safety training and the certificate of occupancy. Now not all of those are being paid out before we have a space, but that money gets set aside because if we don't have those then we don't have a store!

✅$5,000: We are halfway to the most exciting goal! Once we have close to the first month's rent I am going to start finding our space! I have a few requirements -

Must be in German Village
Between 1,200 and 2,000 square feet
Space for a commercial kitchen (bonus points for already having the equipment)
Not need ten years of renovation

$10,000: We will put down the security deposit and get that pesky Health Department review done. Their website says give them at least 45 days prior to opening for the review, but I have also heard it can take forever so the sooner we get to this point the better. It's also another big chunk of money for that work.

$25,000: Another fun one - that's where we get those freezers, coolers and other equipment to furnish the store. Things are getting real serious at this point.

$50,000: Commercial kitchen build out! While this can be part of a phased approach (or skipped if I'm lucky enough to find a space already equipped), but the less time I have to prepare foods off site the better.

$100,000: It feels a little bonkers to think it will take $50,000+ to fill up the store just once, but our local farmers, bakers, makers and producers deserve to make enough money to keep serving us!