ICF Share Slide-up Scale
The wet & wild farmers of Intervale Community Farm.
Why Slide Up?
As most people are aware, the general cost of living has increased in recent years, and rents in the Burlington area have grown even faster. Living on a farmer wage has always been a squeeze, but ICF is at risk of losing experienced and talented employees if we can’t pay them appropriately. Sliding up provides additional revenue for ICF to devote to wages for our farmers beyond current levels, while still allowing ICF to offer more affordable share prices for those who need them.
ICF began in 1990 to better value the people, the land, and the community. For 35 years, fair and meaningful employment and ecological farming practices have underpinned ICF’s work to feed our thousands of CSA members. We hope our new sliding scale pricing will allow us to continue our vital work of growing healthy food for our members while fairly compensating the work of our dedicated farmers.
How Does It Work?
On our sign-up form, a drop down menu for each share size shows:
standard share price (our “base rate”), shown as share cost and cost per week;
the base rate with 10% added to the share price;
and the base rate with 20% added to the share price.
All of these share options allow ICF to continue what we have been doing, and hopefully, pay meaningfully higher wages for our staff. Everything helps!
If I Slide Up, Will It Matter?
Yes! Intervale Community Farm’s achievements have always hinged on the modest efforts of the many. We are here today because many, many CSA members have agreed to share the risk and embrace the goals of ICF. While it is hard to predict specific outcomes or revenue, here are a few things to note:
It takes about $15,000 to increase wages for most of the staff by $1.00/hour;
Around 100 members sliding up their share price 20% would raise around $15,000;
Sliding up +10% on a 2024 Small Share costs you an additional $3.50/week; adding +20% is $7.00/week;
Even with a price increase of 20%, the average ICF CSA member is still receiving many more vegetables than at comparable retail prices. View our Share Value information.
Why Can’t I Slide Down?
Our base rate share price is set to provide ICF with sufficient revenue to operate, but just barely, so we can’t discount below that without jeopardizing our ability to provide CSA members a diverse basket of quality produce. ICF continues to offer our Supported Share Program to households with lower income who qualify for the program. We are also happy to set up a payment plan for anyone.
Why Doesn’t the Base Rate Cover What ICF needs to operate?
ICF’s share prices have always aimed to balance our desire to keep vegetables as affordable as we can with our desire to pay our farmers a fair wage that provides a reasonable standard of living. Complicating our discussion is the national food pricing environment, which strongly undervalues labor and ecological concerns, but sets the reference pricing against which all producers are compared. Our definition of ‘affordability’ and ‘fair wages’ have been topics of concern for the Intervale Community Farm Co-op Board and staff for many years, and will continue to be so.
