Tyddyn Teg is planning on launching a community share offer in April 2023!
Do you want to invest in regenerative farming, help secure a local food supply in Arfon, sponsor sustainable land stewardship and support community food sovereignty? Then read on, and answer a few questions to help us to get this offer right!
What is a community share offer?
A community share offer is a vehicle for transferring ownership of our land and business to the broader community. We believe that this is a brilliant way of safe-guarding the future of the farm, ensuring that it remains a community asset going forward.
That is because if we have many owners then we are less dependent on the fortunes of any one family or individual who could sell the land for some reason; and the business of growing food for our community can continue uninterrupted regardless of whether people want to cash out their investments.
How does it work?
People buy shares in the farm and receive an agreed-upon interest rate on their investment generated by the profits we make running the farm. Shares can be withdrawn (i.e. cashed out) after the first 3 years and will be paid out to investors as soon as possible after receiving notice of intention to withdraw.
The Community Solidarity Fund
This is an innovative initiative to support community food sovereignty at home and abroad. An amount of money equivalent to the interest on shares below a certain value will be paid into the fund. If you invest above a certain value, you can choose to receive the interest yourself, to split it 50/50, or to have it all paid into the CSF (Community Solidarity Fund).
The CSF will be used to subsidise cheaper veg bags for struggling families, to support our team in offering educational tours of the farm and activities for local groups as well as open days and other community events. It can also be used to support land-based projects and workers in other parts of the world, contributing to building a global network of people working together for positive change.
How much do we want to raise?
We are planning on raising £380,000, which will not only cover the purchase of the land and business, but also allow us to embark on an ambitious program of upgrades to our infrastructure and facilities that will make us a much stronger community project. Detailed information about Tyddyn Teg Co-operative and our plans for the future will be released when the Share Offer is ready. For now, we need to gauge interest and refine our plan, so it would be really helpful if you could fill in this short survey.
Is Tyddyn Teg at risk?
No! As you’d expect from a bunch of people committed to sustainability, we’re fixing the roof whilst the sun is shining.
We’ve been able to secure the ownership of the farm site thanks to the exceptional generosity of someone who wholeheartedly supports our mission and has persuaded their family to make a significant investment to secure the farm. We need to repay that money by 2028, so we need to make steps now so we don’t leave it all to the last minute and strain people’s goodwill.
We also want to press fast-forward on our plans to develop the farm and its buildings to better enable the farm to work for us and the wider community. We want to make roads much less treacherous, provide car parking access for the farm shop (and for people using the rights of way that pass through the farm), create an office and build accessible toilets and accommodation to earn us extra revenue.
