# Nouns Berries - Proliferating the Meme by Making Food a Public Good

## 📌 TL;DR


Food, a basic building block of life, is not treated as a public good.
[As a result, nearly 1/3 of the global population has insecure access to food.](https://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/2021/en/#:~:text=Moderate%20or%20severe%20food%20insecurity%20has,30%20percent%20of%20the%20world%20population&text=Moderate%20or%20severe%20food,of%20the%20world%20population&text=severe%20food%20insecurity%20has,30%20percent%20of%20the)
**Nouns is an engine for positive sum world-building;
making food a public good is core infrastructure for a positive-sum world.**

### **Requesting 250,000 USDC**

1️⃣ **Rent a warehouse.**
2️⃣ **Purchase growing equipment and materials.**
3️⃣ **Grow a few thousand pounds of strawberries to donate to the local community.**
4️⃣ **Be immediately self-sustaining without requiring further funding.**

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## 💡 **Proposal**
🌐 [*https://thecityfarmers.org/*](https://thecityfarmers.org/)


#### This initiative is a testament to positive-sum collaboration, funded by a global DAO and realized by a local non-profit, bringing fresh produce to urban areas.
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## ⌛️ 0-18 Month Deliverables

The mighiest of trees began as a seed, and the same is true of the City Farmers.
With 250,000 USDC, our organization will:

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### **Fundraise for the Future!**
The successful implementation of funding from Nouns will give the United States Federal Government & State Governments, Corporate Responsbility/ Impact professionals, Corporate/ Family Foundation directors, and high-dollar donors the confidence to give grants to our program with the assurance their dollars are being put to good use.

**Our mindset and vision is longterm. Our medium term financial goal is to raise at least $5 million to invest in an endowment and fund the organization's basic operation in perpetuity.**

*$5M + 5% annual interest = $250,000 operating budget, in perpetuity.*

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## 🏛️ **Our Team**
🌐 [*https://thecityfarmers.org/about/*](https://thecityfarmers.org/about)

### Kenwood Training Center dba City Farmers

[**Ian Wylie Hedrick**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iwylie/)
-aka wylin💎. in a previous position, wylin was responsible for the physical conditions and maintenance of 19 school and community gardens across the City of Chicago.(https://wylin.heavens.pictures/urban-ag)


[**Steve Denenberg**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-denenberg-76583b289/)
-President & Co-Founder, M43 Ventures;
-frmr Co-Founder & COO of FarmedHere, [a venture-backed 90,000 sq ft indoor urban ag business.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlzRIOcrcU) Steve has experience operating an urban ag business at scale, and selling products to Whole Foods, Kroger, and other national grocery retailers.

[**Nick Tanev**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-tanev/)
-Financial Consultant at Venat Capital Strategies
-frmr SEC Reporting Consultant at Workvia & frmr Regulatory Examiner at the CBOE. Nick has deep experience navigating the US financial regulatory system, business compliance, and raising capital.

***Per our bylaws, Directors are not compensated for their role; they may be hired as staff.***

📝 *As a 501c3 non-profit corporation, our Board has strict fiduciary duties and multiple laws/ IRS tax codes to comply with. Our [governing documents](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q28mBj41azbLQOMLQG_NjBgUMSDVMJOt) and [operating policies](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_mK54RAHAnpSseQqY2ii3vLX5PKhiPTu) can be found in this Google Drive.*

### CryptoNovo x akceler8

[**CryptoNovo**](https://twitter.com/CryptoNovo311) brings 7 years of crypto experience and 2 years of Strategic Partnership Development experience from Vayner3.

[**Bob Soljacich**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobsoljacich/) and his firm [**akceler8**](https://www.akceler8.com/) bring decades of experience as nationally respected marketing, finance, and management executives. akceler8 previously consulted on the launch, growth, and stabilization of a for-profit organic greenhouse in Jamaica.

Novo x akceler8 are assisting in the design, development, and deployment of the Nouns Berries marketing and business development plans.

### Freya Cultivation Systems

[**Freya Cultivation Systems**](https://freyacultivation.com/pages/about-freya) is an AgTech developer headquarted in Lithuania, working on increasing greenhouse profitability and solving operational aeroponic challenges.

They are in contact with the Nouns Berries team and are assisting in the design and development of the of the growing system, and are interested in the resarch applications of the project for their busines.

## 📊 **Budget Breakdown**

Per the TLDR, our ask is **250,000 USDC** to our financial manager's Endaoment smart contract address at 0xCAAfF3b2D946d944016464123547ef38824cA330.

In order to be as compliant as possible given the U.S. regulatory environment, and our status as a 501c3 non-profit corporation, 100% of our cryto donations are facilited by [Endaoment.](https://endaoment.org/)

### **Grow Operations - 128,000 USDC**
- 1st year warehouse rental + utilities (electricity, water, heat) - 45,000 USDC
- 50 Grow Towers - 12,000 USDC
- Water Nozzles - 20,000 USDC
- Seeds, growing medium, nutrients - 10,000 USDC
- Plumbing Materials: 10,000 USDC
- Plumbing Contractor 5,000 USDC
- Transportation: 5,000 USDC
- Tech/ Media Equipment - 10,000 USDC
- A watering automation controller - 5,000 USDC
- Seed starting station - 5,000 USDC
- Water Tanks - 1,000 USDC

### **Design, Planning, & Marketing - 50,000 USDC**

### **Project Administration - 62,000 USDC**

### **10% to PHIMC - 25,000 USDC**

While 10% may seem steep, PHIMC's CFO has over 25 years of experience in public accounting, including CFO-as-a-service for both for-profit and non-profit businesses in previous roles. As a 29 year old non-profit that was incubated in the City of Chicago's Department of Health, they play a crucial role in monitoring our financial performance and provide an extra layer of accountability, governance, and legal compliance to our finances. [Checkout their website.](https://phimc.org)


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## 🔍 **DYOR**

### DM me on X, or Farcaster, or email me at [e-mail]
### I'm happy to share the 60 second presentation, or a 60 minute deepdive.

This project has been a work in progress for several years. Many thanks to our mentors for guiding and advising us along the way, and encouraging us to pivot when needed.

After a mentor recommended we pursue the 501c3 non-profit model, FoodNouns gave us our founding grant via [Prop.House](https://prop.house/foodnouns/open-kitchen-rounds-3/5862), May 2023. This allowed us to secure a contract which ultimately landed us with our finance partner.

It was connections made shortly after at Chicago's Nounish Bitcoin Pizza Day that ultimately formed our Board of Directors.

Shoutout to the Lil Nouns x Gnars for Funding the [Lil Gnarly Skate Jam](https://thatsgnar.ly/thatsgnarly/stories/thatsgnarly-24-404344) x ETHChicago, September 15-17 2023

💡 Big shoutout to Rafa for creating [a solid template for concise proposals.](https://hackmd.io/@rafathebuilder/BkPAmHZbp)