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As Peace Corps Volunteers in Panama, we lived alongside rural agricultural producers, working to better plan their farms and develop their businesses. We saw some positive changes, but as our service came to an end, we asked ourselves and our local counterparts how we could truly make a positive impact in their communities. The answer resonated loud and clear: access to retail markets. So, rather than spin our wheels and hunt for small ins, we are opening our own marketplace in the capital, Panama City, to showcase a truly inclusive, transparent supply chain--a place to connect small, rural producers with the consumers in the city that yearn to support them.
El
Motete Marketplace
El
Motete Marketplace is a retail store in Panama City aiming to bridge the gap
between rural and urban Panama. With an emphasis on community, culture
and food, our's is a space to empower small producers to grow their businesses and strengthen agricultural communities. Through personal relationships with our producers, we use a grassroots supply chain to stock the highest quality produce, staple foods, specialty goods, body care and more. El Motete Marketplace is our first step and financial
engine towards supporting a more inclusive, transparent local food scene in Panama. To foster a model that truly benefits the campesino farmers with whom we worked in the Peace Corps, we will dedicate a percentage of our profits to programs and trainings to help our producers scale their businesses, and grow their market share.
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Will
Ridlehoover worked for two years alongside coffee farmers in the
Province of Veraguas implementing agribusiness trainings and teaching biology
and chemistry in the local high school. He also worked in Los Santos in support
of sustainable cattle ranching projects through the Smithsonian's Environmental
Leadership and Training Initiative. Before Panama, Will worked extensively in
agriculture and education at the Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society
(PEAS), The Watershed Education Network, and the Outward Bound School. Deeply
committed to creating an inclusive agricultural supply chain, he lives for
his passion: empowering farmers and producers to protect the biosphere,
preserve their rich traditional lifestyles, and make a buck doing it. Will
holds a degree from the University of Montana in Environmental Studies with a
concentration in Sustainable Food Systems and Agroecology. He resides in Panama
City, Panama.
Megan Vose spent the last two
years working along side cacao farmers in the region of Bocas del Toro, Panama
where she supported disease prevention, farm management and agribusiness
assistance. She also led a fundraising project to build a traditional birthing
center, with a group of Midwives in her community. Before living in Panamá, among other things, Megan was as a produce buyer for Whole Foods Market where she spent nearly 8
years. She has extensive experience in Latin American and India in commodity
agriculture, value added products and supply chain creation. Megan works with California Farm Link as a Loan Analyst and Farmer
Advisor, and is finishing a Masters in International Environmental Policy with
a focus on Business, Sustainability and Development at the Middlebury
Insititute of International Studies. She is taking advantage of opportunities
at MIIS to refine El Motete’s model of social impact, but can’t wait to get
back to the Isthmus in May 2016.
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We need your help to transform our vision into a reality--to remodel our store and stock our shelves. On top of the financial support, we want to share our passion for empowering small producers with our friends, family, and the world! Indiegogo is our chance to involve a greater network of people invested in refining our vision, and creating a truly positive social and economic impact for campesino farmers.
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What You Get
Our perks represent the spirit of business, agriculture, and craftsmanship we support at El Motete Marketplace. These products are hand-made, from communities that we know well from our time in the Peace Corps and in developing our supply chain for the store. We hope you get a taste of the amazing products coming from all over Panama.
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El Motete Marketplace is
our first step and financial engine to cultivate a more sustainable,
resilient and locally engaging food supply chain in Panama. Through our retail space we will
support small hold farmers and producers in Panama in gaining market share in the growing high end and specialty food market in Panama City. As we scale up, we will gear our growth towards systems that will best benefit local producers, and encourage co-growth. While our long term impact plans are dynamic, we will contribute a percentage of our profits to programs and trainings aimed at building farmer, producer and consumer buy in and capacity.
Our model is inclusive, and our goal is to give every link in the supply chain a voice, a share and stake in El Motete Marketplace.
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We realize that starting a
business comes with great risks. With that, we feel confident that the network of both
business owners and producers that we have built within Panama will support us
as we overcome hurdles, and fine tune our business model towards profitability and a positive social impact. We have a long ways to go in refining what El Motete
Marketplace is and what it stands to be in the future, but are proud of our small first step towards this shift in the food system. By avoiding high initial overhead and a large store, we create opportunities for strategic growth with truly positive social impacts.
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We know that
money can be challenging (trust us, we lived as Peace Corps volunteers!) But there are other ways you can help:
By sharing our Indiegogo campaign via Facebook, Instagram, email, twitter, or giant blimp….you us to spread our message
and build our network. Here are some
tips on best ways to maximize our exposure:
By “sharing” our campaign on facebook, instead of copying
the link into your status, this helps to connect a chain of people who are all
sharing the same things, and bumping us higher on people's feeds. So when you see our post with
our Indiegogo campaign off of our El Motete Marketplace page, click
share!
Tagging El Motete Marketplace also helps to maximize our
exposure. Whether it be via instagram or
facebook, this allows people to click on our page and also brings us to the top
of peoples feeds.
Remember to explain why you find our campaign
valuable. People value the opinions of
their family, friends and colleagues, so by sharing why its important to you,
could help others see the value in our campaign as well.
The more our friends and family can share with their network, the greater opportunities we have to build our own contacts, and to receive support from those truly interested in our mission.