PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 27, 2021
Bonnie Rukin, founder and longtime coordinator of the group, said the leadership of Slow Money Maine has reviewed the organization’s role over the past few years and determined that needs have changed, the food system landscape has changed, and many more resources are available today to food entrepreneurs than there were 11 years ago. “It just seemed time,” she said. “We’ve really gotten the plant solidly in the ground, and the pandemic was the test of that because many of the businesses that we worked with over the years would not have withstood the barrage of the pandemic 10 or 11 years ago. But this year they were able to because they were solidly established.” Rukin estimates that more than 150 Maine businesses received help from the group finding funding, mentors and technical assistance.