Southeast Alaska Restaurant Creates Quality Jobs with Support from Native CDFI
Client: Edith Johnson, owner of Ludvig’s Bistro
Client Location: Sitka, AK
CDFI: Spruce Root
CDFI Service Area: Alaska
Financing and technical assistance, with support from OFN’s Finance Justice Fund
Adapted from story originally published by Spruce Root.
Ludvig’s Bistro is a longtime, beloved restaurant in Sitka, Alaska. Customers sometimes wait weeks to a month for a reservation. Committed to creating good jobs, owner Edith Johnson often hires staff who might not otherwise have quality employment opportunities. This commitment has created a workplace that celebrates second chances and helps staff develop professional skills and experiences that benefit not only themselves but the entire community.
Edith, who is Tlingit, has also gone above and beyond to support her community outside the restaurant, including delivering meals to families and households during COVID, providing job training and support to many people in her community, supporting local food systems, and highlighting Indigenous and other local food.
Support from Native CDFI Sets Up Indigenous Entrepreneurs for Success
When Edith sought to purchase Ludvig’s from its previous owners in early 2023, she approached regional, Native community development financial institution (CDFI) Spruce Root for a loan.
As a longtime cash buyer, Edith did not have access to mainstream financing. However, through financial literacy programs and other Spruce Root support, she learned about financial responsibility and building credit. Edith received guidance and one-on-one business coaching from now-Executive Director Alana Peterson, including how to move her business into an LLC.
“This was my first time ever getting a business loan. It was stressful at times, but Spruce Root’s CDFI Director Michael Ching was unbelievable at guiding me through the entire process. Having a team in your corner like Spruce Root, I just can’t even fathom doing it any other way,” said Edith.
CDFIs Finance Opportunity in Every Corner of America
In 1994, the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act launched the CDFI Fund through the U.S. Treasury Department to ensure historically marginalized and disinvested communities and entrepreneurs like Edith received equal opportunity to finance their dreams and build wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities.
In 2001 following the Native American Lending Study, the CDFI Fund established an initiative that includes dedicated funding and a distinct Native CDFI designation for organizations whose target markets are majority Native communities.
Not only do CDFIs provide responsible loans and other types of funding to help minority- and women-owned small businesses start up and grow, they also provide financing for the development of affordable, quality homes, community facilities, and much more — all leading to job growth and a stronger, more inclusive economy.
This year, the CDFI Fund celebrates its 30th anniversary, with more than 1,300 CDFIs serving communities from the Alaskan coast to the Great Plains to the sandy shores of the Carolinas. Today CDFIs are based in all 50 states, District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. OFN’s membership includes more than 400 CDFIs across the country, whose financing has cumulatively helped create or maintain more than three million jobs.
Read more about the history and evolution of the industry in OFN’s CDFI 101 toolkit.
Learn more about OFN member impact.
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Your client success stories illustrate what it means to deliver opportunity for all. They help OFN demonstrate how CDFIs work to help create good family-wage jobs, decent affordable homes, healthy foods, greener neighborhoods, and so much more.
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