Maine Harvest Credit Union to Open in 2019

A new credit union will open in Maine next year after organizers announced Monday they had reached their fund-raising goal.

Maine Harvest Credit Project will become the state’s 56th credit union and the country’s first-ever to lend exclusively to farmers and food entrepreneurs.

Sam May and Scott Budde founded the project in 2013 to support local farmers producing unadulterated, minimally processed and allergen-free food. The project is sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the Maine Farmland Trust.

By March it had raised $1.4 million and held an organizing meeting to adopt bylaws and appoint a board of directors. The final piece of funding was donated by the Maine Credit Union League.

“Starting a credit union isn’t easy; it takes a lot of time, money, paperwork, and dedicated people to guide the process,” said Todd Mason, the league’s president/CEO. “The people behind this have worked tirelessly.”

Maine Harvest’s organizers include farmers, philanthropists and credit union experts. By spring, Maine Harvest plans to begin hiring, including an agricultural loan officer. By June, it plans to open its headquarters in Unity—a small town in central Maine 35 miles from Bangor to its northeast and Augusta to its southwest.

The co-founders have deep roots in Maine and extensive business experience. May spent time on a dairy farm while growing up in Maine in the 1950s before he became a wireless technology analyst for US Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Silicon Valley.

Budde, the project’s director, graduated Bowdoin College in 1981 and founded TIAA’s first department focused on impact investing strategies and created new investment programs in microfinance and community bank deposits that deployed over $240 million in new capital.

A nine-month feasibility study found the average farmer needs about $100,000 to $500,0000 in mortgages, about $25,000 to $50,000 in equipment loans and up to $50,000 in seasonal lines of credit.

The University of Maine has committed to purchase 20% of food served on its campuses from local farmers and food producers by 2020. And a 2016 survey of Maine consumers found that 80% of survey respondents said they would buy locally produced food over food from other areas when given a choice.

“Our research estimates that there is about a $186 million financing gap among Maine farmers and food producers,” said Amanda Beal, President/CEO of Maine Farmland Trust. “Bridging that gap will keep farmers on their land, help others scale and grow and generally act as a catalyst for this entire industry.”

Maine’s political delegation announced its support for Maine Harvest in a letter to the NCUA. Maine Harvest will become part of the Maine Credit Union League and its members will have access to shared branching and ATMs within its statewide network.