Christopher DeAngelis, People’s Food Cooperative

Lenders (like LEAF) aren’t typical bankers. They are like our cooperative’s brain trust. When LEAF gets involved, they first see if it’s a worthy project to finance. It’s a back and forth. I leaned on Josh (Director California/Senior Loan Officer) seeing what I should prioritize in the proforma. LEAF has the expertise and the knowledge. Organizations like LEAF have enough distance to tell us the hard truths with the knowledge to understands the industry. It’s not that my expectations were exceeded but my hopes were.