The whole argument.

Groundworks is a planned 1,500 – 2,500 sq ft community food space in McMinnville — a counter-service café, a curated farm stand, and an education room operating under one roof and one calendar. It is structured as a 501(c)(3) so earned revenue underwrites mission programming rather than distributing profit.

The case rests on three propositions that still require local validation: enough daily café demand, a workable corridor supply chain, and a programming calendar that turns a café into a place rather than a transaction.

Working farms and growing towns share the Banks–McMinnville corridor, but there is not yet one dependable public place where local produce, prepared food, and food education operate under one roof. Corridor agricultural-output and food-access figures still need sourcing.

The paradox isn't supply. It's that the supply chain points away from the people who live next to it. Groundworks is a small structural intervention: a building that makes that adjacency legible.

Primary catchment: McMinnville residents and nearby corridor communities. Secondary: visitors already traveling through the area. Population, traffic, and spending assumptions still need local validation.

The working hypothesis is that a daily, walk-in place combining local produce and prepared food can complement existing markets. Competitor and customer research is still required.

Café is the revenue anchor — daily traffic, predictable margin, the social magnet. Farm stand is the front door — it makes the building feel like a grocery even when you came in for coffee. Education is the reason to stay — programming the café throughput pays for.

The pillars are deliberately co-located. A café alone is a coffee shop. A farm stand alone is a market. Education alone is a non-profit room nobody walks past. Together they are a place.

Target site: McMinnville, ground-floor, 1,500 – 2,500 sq ft, with a small loading area for produce deliveries and enough street presence to support walk-in traffic. Lease, not purchase, for the first facility.

Build-out budget envelope is sized for a light commercial kitchen, three-compartment sink, refrigeration for produce and prepared food, counter seating for ~20, and movable furniture in the program zone.

Weekly cadence, owned and curated by Groundworks: cooking demos, grower talks, film nights, guest talks, youth programming, and the Groundworks Bookshelf. SNAP / EBT honored on any class that involves food going home with attendees.

Programming is intentionally not rented out. The room is not for sale.

Direct relationships with growers in the Banks–McMinnville corridor. A weekly buying pattern that lets small farms commit consistent volume. The farm stand operates as a real customer to the agricultural community, not a charity case for it.

Founder-led during pre-opening, with a board of five to seven recruited from food, finance, education, and the agricultural community. Operating roles defined in the Operations Handbook; governance scope and policies in the Governance document — both in the Planning Library.

Startup capital: $150K – $250K. Year 1 revenue: ~$295K – $360K across the conservative / baseline / optimistic scenarios. Earned revenue covers ~76% of fixed operating costs in Year 1; the remainder is the philanthropic gap closed by the Founder's Table.

Full P&L, COGS assumptions, payroll ramp, and sensitivity tables in the Financial Model.

Capital is raised in two tranches: a Founder's Table cohort ($150K – $250K) to open, then an operating-year-one bridge to smooth ramp-up. Annual fund replaces capital campaign mode after Year 2. Strategy lives in the Planning Library.

Three serious risks: (1) build-out cost overruns on a small lease — mitigated by a fixed-bid GC and a 15% contingency; (2) café ramp slower than baseline — mitigated by a conservative Year-1 budget already modeled; (3) founder bandwidth in pre-opening — mitigated by phased hiring and a clear board handoff plan.

2026 — entity formation, board recruitment, Founder's Table. 2027 — site secured, design, permitting, lead gifts closed. 2028 — build-out, hiring, soft open. Late 2028 / early 2029 — public opening. 2029+ — Phase 2 vision (see The Long View).

Three things: introductions to corridor funders aligned with food, land, or youth; a seat at the Founder's Table for those who can commit; and patient time from operators, designers, and food professionals already doing this work nearby.