Part of the strategy for the funding requested by this proposal is for the SSF to break even in terms of costs/revenue. In 2013, the SSF generated $60,000 in sales with $50,000 in sales to the Dining Hall. To break even the SSF would need to generate $130,000 to break even year to year. This includes the Farm Educator position, Farm Foreman, Seasonal Labor, and seasonal expenses. This team is about $70,000 short. Having another 3,000 square ft. high tunnel would increase yearly revenue by as much as $15,000. Including another walk in cooler to our operation will allow us to generate another $15,000 in revenue from root storage crops. This would bring them almost half way to the goal of another $70,000 in revenue to approach our break-even point. The additional $40,000 this team hopes to make up with increasing efficiencies to our systems. Part of that is the generation of fiber for weed control with the raking and baling equipment. Improving weed control systems with this equipment will go a long way to help us generate part of that $40,000.

Adding the half time working and paid morning labor force will also allow this tema to physically harvest more produce that is going to waste, which should also help generate the additional $40,000 needed for the break even model. Fresh Press is looking to grow beyond being a campus project to modeling the potential of agri-fiber as a changing factor in the dependency on the tree-fiber based commercial paper industry. A team of faculty and grad students from FP have been selected to participate in the ICorp Illinois program, which will put in place the framework for revenue generation, alignment with potential funders and preparation for national granting opportunities. This team hopes to grow to a model, where we can purchase agti-fiber from the SSF, providing additional revenue and continuing to close the zero-waste gap at the farm.