All Nonprofits are NOT the Same

“It is a predisposition of human nature to consider an idea one finds unpleasant to be untrue, and then it is easy to find arguments against it. -Sigmund Freud

Setting the record straight about the business plan for the Lopez Food Center

“Heavy reliance on grants and donations leaves Lopez Island’s dozens of nonprofit organizations providing much-needed services vulnerable” says the recent article in Salish Current.

It paints all the nonprofits mentioned with the same brush of draining the pool of charitable funds available for island programs without first developing strong business plans.

This is simply not the case with the Lopez Food Center. The Lopez Food Center has a strong business plan, has already obtained the local support it needs and is on track to break ground on its new building by summer 2026.

Building Construction Costs – 89% Funded

The Food Center is nearing the end of its 5-year-long work to raise the funds to construct its building in Lopez Village. The projected cost of the building itself is $9.1 million of which $8.1 million has now been raised to date – 89% of the construction costs. If the project were canceled or delayed significantly these funds would not go back into a pool to become available to other organizations on Lopez Island. They would have to be returned to the grantors and individual donors.

It is important to note that these grants are available only to organizations working to provide specific services. Most of the nonprofits listed in the article would not qualify. Many of the grants obtained by the Food Center require the recipient to own the building the grant will help fund. Organizations with short-term leased facilities do not qualify.

The remaining $1.1 million yet to be raised will be obtained in 2026 from already identified state, federal and private foundation grants. Applications for these grants are due next year.

Operating Budget – Funded by rental income not future charitable donations

The Lopez Food Center has a very strong and well-planned operating budget that has been vetted several times by financial experts. It projects rental revenues of $98K in year 1 rising to $108K in year 5. Revenues come from rental income on the various spaces in the Food Center.

Any educational programs will be self-funded with grants. An operating and replacement reserve and an endowment fund will keep the project self-supporting without reliance on future charitable donations.

The Food Center has conservatively estimated that revenues will rise by 2.5% per year but that expense will rise by 3% per year over this period.   Equally conservatively, the Food Center has assumed a 25% vacancy rate in long-term rental business incubator space.  Foundations and other grant providers are consistently impressed with the detailed assumptions in the budget.  In addition, the Food Center budget has built in $800,000 in project reserve funds, interest earnings from which will help subsidize rental income if revenues should come in short. 

We need to correct some misstatements in the Salish Current article.

  • The Food Center will not have an Executive Director.  The article states that the Food Center will have a director at a salary of $117,000 annually.  This salary refers to the Parks and Rec organization not to the Lopez Food Center.  There will be a part-time facilities manager the cost of which is included in our budget.
  • The article contains a chart that is misleading with incorrect data comparing LFC revenue to other non-profits.
    • The source or the information in the chart are listed as a ProPublica website which contains no financial data for the Food Center.  It also lists the Lopez Food Center website but the data in the chart is not consistent with that on the Food Center website.
    • The chart compares projected Food Center revenues to those for Lopez Community Center for the Arts (LCCA), Taproot Community Kitchen, Lopez Grange and Woodman Hall and indicates that Food Center revenue projections are way out of line in comparison with these organizations.  But the organizations are not at all similar.   They fill very different community needs. 
    • The Food Center will rent space to many people and organizations on a permanent and temporary basis. The other nonprofits contained in the chart have some of the facilities that will be housed at the Food Center but none have all of them.   Comparing their budgets is comparing apples and oranges. The Food Center will offer these services and more:
      • Access to local food and food products for all.
        • The development of a communal farm stand is under way where community members can purchase locally grown food and food products.  These products would be available to all customers including those using food assistance programs such as Fresh Bucks and SNAP benefits.
          • Ideally the farm stand would be run by students from the Lopez School.  We plan to obtain grant funding to pay them a stipend and they would be able to earn school credit for learning new business skills.
        • San Juan Island Food Hub will be a tenant in the building.
        • The Lopez Island Island Family Resource Center’s  Food Share will move into the new building.   Shoppers can easily access not only products at Food Share but also products from the farm stand, the Food Hub and pop-up stores.
      • Business development for food and food product entrepreneurs
        • A fully equipped community commercial kitchen will allow new food businesses to make and sell their products either from pop-up stores located in the building or at the communal farm stand.
          • The kitchen could help other island venues that rent spaces but don’t have full commercial kitchens readily available because foods can be prepared at the Food Center and then easily transported to another venue.
        • Business incubator office space for people working to start a new food business career with potential business development training from the Lopez Island Family Resource Center programs.
        • Space for food trucks to park permanently where customers will have access to covered seating and easily accessible restrooms.
      • LIFRC will be a tenant in the Food Center building with the two programs below.  It is not an operator of the Food Center.   The Food Center and LIFRC are completely separate organizations with their own boards of directors and their own budgets.
      • Other important services and spaces for the island community
        • Secure food storage rental space will be available for dry, refrigerated and frozen foods.
        • Space for small community gatherings or private parties can be rented. The space can even be used for pop-up restaurants and for new businesses trying out their ideas.

Work to complete the Food Center cannot be paused. We plan to break ground in Summer 2026.

The Salish Current article calls for a pause in work already well underway by many nonprofits to have a community discussion about “what services are essential? What can we sustain as a community? How can efforts by different organizations complement rather than compete? And importantly, how do we ensure sustainable stewardship of resources to maintain the fabric of our community for decades to come?”  

While such a discussion is laudable, it cannot stop development work that has been under way for over 5 years and is now nearing completion.

For over 5 years the Lopez Food Center has consistently reached out to obtain community input.

The Lopez Food Center has consistently reached out to the Lopez Community through community engagement meetings, emails, social media posts and much more since 2020 when the project was conceived.  And it continues to do so.   All members of the Lopez community have been welcomed to put forward their points of view at the many meetings we have hosted. 

  • A 2020 feasibility study documented stakeholder demand for centralized food distribution and support services.A subsequent $163K grant from USDA funded a plan for a food center in San Juan County.  Lopez was the initial focus of this planning grant based on the results of the recent feasibility study.
  • The Lopez Island Food Center organization was incorporated in 2023 and obtained 501(c)(3) status. Land was donated for the project site in the heart of Lopez Village.
  • In 2024 and early 2025 we hosted 3 informational meetings which welcomed input from all who attended.   We took the comments to heart and incorporated many of the ideas put forward into our project.  
  • We are engaged in ongoing meetings with interested groups and stakeholders such as farmers, the Lopez School, prospective food business developers, restaurants and many more.
  • We have 38 support letters from organizations and food businesses and 202 signatures of support
  • The Village location has repeatedly been identified as an essential support needed for food businesses who need storage, etc, in the Village.