So far in our week-long journey, we’ve met the first two building blocks of our reimagined food system: Clear Frontier, who gave us the land, as well as Domaine de Graux and ColemBIO, who brought the knowledge.
But even the healthiest soil and best guidance can’t unlock transformation without a critical ingredient: capital. Today’s story is about money - but not the kind that chases short-term yield or squeezes margins. This is money on a mission. And it comes in more than one form.
Walden Mutual Bank - Financing what feeds us
At a glance, Walden Mutual Bank looks like a traditional community bank. But look closer, and you’ll see something different. Something more intentional. More rooted in purpose than just profit.
Walden is the first mutual bank of its kind - built from the ground up to serve farms, food businesses, and sustainability-focused enterprises.
Its mission?“We enable anyone to make positive and lasting change in the ecosystems that sustain us - beginning with food.”
Here, every dollar deposited becomes a lever for impact.
And that matters because your bank shapes where your money goes. It’s actually one of the most impactful personal choices we make, yet often the most invisible. Unlike the largest banks that funnel deposits into fossil fuel development, Walden offers a way to align your finances with your values. Read our interview with Charley, founder and CEO of Walden Mutual, to better understand how your banking choices can become a force for good.
In 2024 alone, Walden deployed $85.6 million in loans, with:
- 61% going to women-owned or operated businesses
- 22% to small farms
- 47% of borrowers saying Walden was the only bank willing to lend to them
That last stat is critical. Nearly half the time, Walden was the only door open. These are the growers, makers, and dreamers who too often get left behind. Not because they lack vision or grit, but because they don’t fit the risk profile of a conventional lender.
Rethinking returns: Value for the whole community
In 2024, Walden introduced a program that turns the idea of community banking into something beautifully tangible: The Summer Farm Dividend.
How it works? Walden puts real money (up to $100 per person) directly into the hands of its members to spend at local farms, farmers’ markets, and food businesses. Just as a thank-you for supporting your local food economy, and a way to send dollars back to the people who grow our food. No complicated fine print. No “points”. Just money, flowing back to the people who need it most. Last summer, this initiative returned over $31,000 in cash to local food actors - a direct financial boost during one of the most critical (and stressful) seasons of the year.
Walden doesn’t just serve borrowers. It also works to maximize value for its partner-owners, i.e. the everyday people who save and invest with the bank. In 2024, Walden paid over 6x the national average savings rate - a quiet but powerful signal that you don’t have to choose between doing good and earning well. Whether you’re a depositor, a small business, or a borrower, the idea is simple: A financial system should work for everyone it touches - not just the top of the chain.
It’s banking, yes - but with values baked in.
Steward - Lending for regeneration
While Walden reimagines banking, Steward is reshaping commercial lending. Steward is a private commercial lender and financing partner to regenerative agriculture and food systems businesses and has a clear mission:
"To promote environmental and economic stewardship by financing regenerative agriculture."
Steward originates flexible, customized loans to projects throughout the food systems value chain, working with such businesses as farms, ranches, fisheries, consumer packaged goods companies, and restaurants.
What is Steward doing differently?
- Customization over cookie-cutters: Loan terms (including interest rates, duration deferment periods, and repayment structures) are tailored to each borrower’s unique financial reality.
- A holistic financing approach: Steward offers a holistic approach to ensuring a comprehensive understanding of each business. With an expertise in complex, integrated capital stacks, Steward weaves unique financing tools and delivers bespoke financing to businesses throughout the regenerative value chain.
- Values alignment: Steward's mission-driven business ethics and focus on and expertise in regenerative agriculture wholly aligns with its borrowers, serving as the basis for long-term, trusting relationships.
- Community-powered capital: Steward’s proprietary technology platform enables direct distribution of commercial loans to a growing network of impact-driven participating lenders, offering a scalable solution to essential financing.
Why it matters
Finance shapes the food system. It determines who gets to try, who gets to fail safely, and who gets left behind. With Walden and Steward, capital becomes a tool for inclusion, resilience, and regeneration.
These institutions demonstrate that positive impact and financial success can go hand in hand. You just need a different kind of financial partner, one that understands seasonality, variability, and long-term value creation.
If Clear Frontier gave us the land, and Domaine de Graux and ColemBIO brought the knowledge, then Walden and Steward provide the fuel: the capital layer that turns vision into action.
Tomorrow, we turn to a crucial link that often gets overlooked: what happens after the harvest? Who ensures that regenerative products make it to market - fairly, efficiently, and at scale? Tune in to read about the invisible infrastructure that turns transition into economic opportunity.
If you missed Chapter 1 or 2, you can find them here.