We're making more loans throughout Vermont than ever before! VCLF's impact investors make it all possible. If you've ever wanted to invest in Vermonters and Vermont businesses and organizations, let's talk.

Or come learn more! On Wednesday June 17th, VCLF's Director of Investment & Philanthropy Jake Ide is hosting an in-person talk at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier all about how impact investing works and how you can get involved. Watch his invite here.

Come hear the talk, ask questions, and consider becoming an impact investor yourself, or invite a friend who may be interested.

Asian Homestyle Cooking, South Burlington

Asian Homestyle Cooking produces handmade Asian dumplings and frozen dim sum products. Founded in 2013 by Jin Li Chan, Asian Homestyle Cooking has served Vermont customers through a direct-to-consumer pre-order model, and is now expanding into retail and wholesale markets.

Jin uses authentic techniques inspired by her upbringing in Asian neighborhoods, and sources about 70% of her ingredients from Vermont farms and producers.

A VCLF loan is helping Jin to bridge grant funding and purchase an automated dumpling machine that will allow her to produce up to 6,000 dumplings per day. This will increase her capacity by 1,700% and give her the ability to expand sales into Burlington and other Vermont markets.

We're glad to support Jin and Asian Homestyle Cooking, a woman- and BIPOC-owned business, through our Justice Forward Fund.

Congratulations to borrower Queen City Footwear for winning the SBA Vermont 2026 Manufacturer of the Year!

VermontBiz and the U.S. Small Business Administration will celebrate the 2026 Vermont SBA Award Winners today, June 11.

Northeast Kingdom Community Action received a Building Bright Futures grant for their Community Connect Mobile Vans, a mobile outreach initiative that brings essential resources directly to families in rural and hard-to-reach communities.

The vans provide concrete supports such as food, basic necessities, and connections to wraparound services. They often operate alongside playgroups that foster social connection, strengthen relationships among families, and build community-based support networks.

Thank you to the United Church of Northfield for honoring VCLF's work at their Fifth Sunday service on May 31st. Jake enjoyed visiting with them and sharing about a few of the loans we've made locally over the years (and of course, opportunities to support our work). 

We greatly appreciate the donation their congregation sent the very next day. 


Did you know that VCLF's work has always been supported by the community-focused, values-led communities of faith that help knit our communities together? Some of our earliest, most-devoted impact investors were local faith communities. The Sisters of Mercy, for example, remains one of our largest private impact investors today.

To learn more about how your group can activate your community assets for the greater good in Vermont, please reach out!

This Saturday June 13th, Montgomery Center for the Arts and the American Institute of Architects Vermont are holding their opening reception for the Flip the Switch furniture design competition.

Check out how scraps from the landfill have been transformed into hand-crafted, durable furnishings to Vermonters. This year’s theme: free-standing illuminating devices.

Entries have used a majority of reclaimed, reused, and recycled material. Exhibition runs the weekends of June 13-14, 20-21, and 27-28.

We loan to dozens of unique Vermont small businesses — but they need you to keep going. Here are 10 borrowers worth visiting or supporting as we head into summer, including everything from ice cream shops to medicinal mushrooms.

We're now part of The Connectory!

The Connectory is a new curated directory of vetted B2B service providers and resources, built from the recommendations of Vermont's leading business support organizations.

We're hiring a Senior Staff Accountant to manage our financial records, reporting, and general ledger, while supporting our finance and administrative team.

If you're detail-oriented and want to put your accounting skills to work for a mission-driven organization, we'd love to hear from you.

In May we were sad to say goodbye to two of our team members, Sarah Phillips and Kayla Neer.

Sarah was our Director of Housing and Community Facilities Programs and she helped to make a real difference in expanding funding for affordable housing and community facilities across the state. Sarah's now at the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board as their new Housing Director, and we're confident her impact will only continue to grow.

Kayla, our Senior Staff Accountant, decided to move back to Michigan to be closer to family. She's been a valued part of our finance team this past year and we appreciate her time with us.

We send both Sarah and Kayla off with gratitude and good wishes for the future.