Social Enterprise
Local ownership,
not outside dependence.
The fastest way out of poverty is often a job, a business, or an ownership stake.
Money that stays
Social Enterprise is TFH’s newest priority, and it reflects a simple idea: the fastest way to improve a county of persistent rural poverty is to have more jobs, businesses, or ownership opportunities that keeps money circulating within the community rather than flowing out of it.
On the Ground
Where the work is happening
- Appalachian Gold, a Black-owned food brand built in partnership between EDGE and Together for Hope, unites regional farmers to produce food that’s 100% grown and made in Appalachia.
- A Better Way Grocers operates a mobile grocery network across southwest Georgia, bringing fresh, affordable food to communities without a nearby store.
- Delta Circles’ Women Increasing Net-worth program helps Black women in the Delta build savings and raise their credit scores, turning financial education into real financial progress.
- Reid Miller, a made-to-measure womenswear enterprise in Princeton, West Virginia, creates living-wage sewing jobs while producing high-quality apparel, part of a broader push to bring textile manufacturing back to the region.
- Y’All Sauce Company produces small-batch hot sauce out of Appalachia, one example of the kind of small food business EDGE and its partners are working to scale across the region.
Social Enterprise
Coalition Members
SHOP
Together for Hope Gift Box
The Together for Hope Gift Box brings together products made by local businesses and social enterprises across our rural coalition. Created in partnership with Koinonia Farm in Georgia, each box celebrates the creativity, craftsmanship, and entrepreneurial spirit of rural communities. Every purchase supports the people and businesses building stronger local economies, one product and one partnership at a time.
Stories
