Wednesday, July 23: Seedco

We ended a long day with two HIA senior fellows, Nikki Evans and Jeff Hochstetler, both of whom work with an organization called Seedco.

Seedco's mission reads as follows: "Seedco is a national nonprofit organization that works with local partners to create economic opportunity for disadvantaged job seekers, workers, and neighborhood entrepreneurs."

Nikki and Jeff explained their roles in this wide-reaching entity. Their work is multifaceted, which reinforced the complex underlying causes of poverty which had early in the day been espoused by Larry Mead and Henry Freedman. Seedco, like Grameem America, emphasizes economic and business opportunity over handouts. Realizing that it takes money to make money, Seedco helps to secure funding for entrepreneurs while simultaneously educating low-income Americans on financial management. They seek to both address problems unique to a particular community and also to export successful programs on the national level.

It was a bit difficult to come up with questions for Nikki and Jeff, something our group had never had trouble with before. I blame the combination of it being the end of a long day and the lack of controversy in their presentation. Clearly Seedco is an important company combating issues of poverty in an effective way. Nick reinvigorated the conversation by directing it into a more general discussion of poverty and race. And so ended the day.