Hei Hei Friends and Family,
There’s good news and there’s bad news…
The good news is that Hei Hei is a finalist for the Appalachia Regional Food Business Center’s Business Builder Sub Award! It’s a very long name for a very awesome award that supports food and farm businesses in the Appalachian region. Hei Hei was awarded a development fund of $30k to help us grow the business by hiring two employees, purchasing equipment, and developing new packaging so we can expand our wholesale business.
The bad news - our award, along with all the other finalists, has been frozen by the USDA. You’ve probably been hearing about the freeze on funding in the news, which has been impacting all sectors of the USDA, hitting rural and underserved areas (like ours) the hardest.
Molly Sowash of MoSo Farms, who also works at Rural Action, the lead organization on the award, asked a small group of finalists to meet with Congressman Troy Balderson’s staff at their office hours in Albany.
The group included Paul Freedman of Rural Action, Derek Brown of Elza Pearl Wildfarm, a forest farm in Vinton County, Kara Olsen of Attican Farm, Lindsay of Trouvaille Farm, and Katie Lloyd of Rural Action.
We met with Elizabeth Estell, Congressman Balderson’s constituent services representative, and shared our story—along with a jar of our kimchi, made with vegetables from Lindsay and Kara’s farms, and a pack of our dumplings made with pork from Molly’s MoSo Farm.
The award’s mission—to invest in small and mid-sized food and farm businesses and build a more resilient local food system—was embodied not just in our products, but in the people literally sitting right next to me. The power of a strong network and a sustainable regional economy was right there at the table.
The meeting ended and we all got lunch at Ray’s Harvest House, which I highly recommend. I had a really good turkey club with fresh cut fries. I brought along a bunch of seeds from Korea and we passed them around. Lindsay and Kara are growing some of the vegetables for me.
Making a new friend with a forest farm was not something I expected that day, but it was fortuitous since some of the seeds I brought back from Korea grow in forests. Derek was so excited to add them to his gardens. This spring Derek planted thousands of ramp seeds and he was even growing medicinal Asian herbs for his friend who is studying acupuncture. I can’t wait to see how the plants grow and incorporate them in Hei Hei products.
If you feel inclined to contact Representative Balderson’s office about the funding freeze, we drafted a letter you are welcome to use (here) , or you can call them at (614) 523-2555. For more information about the award here is the official USDA press release.
See you at the market!
-Irene
p.s. We will be bringing the last of Larry’s kimchi to the market along with plenty of dumplings.