Help Us Survive 2025 & Get Chemical-Free Food to People
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The Future of Local Food Is Being Built—Right Here, Right Now
Over the past few years, Kakadoodle has grown from a dream into a functioning model for a new kind of food system... one that delivers clean, chemical-free food from regenerative farms directly to families’ doorsteps.
We now serve over 500 households, generating $40,000/month in revenue. Our flock is back after the bird flu. We’re building a safer, more resilient chicken coop with a new high tunnel. And with three years of operations behind us, we’re no longer guessing, we’re growing based on real numbers.
We are halfway to profitability.
And yet, we’re still in the most financially vulnerable moment of our journey.
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The Brutal Facts
This year, Kakadoodle is projected to lose $200,000. That’s a hard number to type. But it doesn’t reflect the full picture.
It doesn’t include the $64,000 already raised through your generosity on GoFundMe.
It doesn’t include the $87,000 in leftover income from the now-suspended LFPA food access program.
What it does reflect is a perfect storm:
- The bird flu wiped out our entire flock—and our egg revenue for three months.
- We’ve had to purchase eggs at nearly 2x our own production cost just to keep customers supplied.
- Two federal programs we relied on were frozen.
- Infrastructure investments were made under the expectation of grant reimbursement, which was delayed.
- Recovery payroll, feed bills, and logistics costs stacked up while revenue lagged behind.
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The Reason for Hope
Even with all of that, we’re making it work. And we’re so close.
- Chickens are back on the land.
- A high tunnel coop is underway, designed to reduce risk of future outbreaks.
- We’re generating $40K in monthly revenue, and our customer base is growing steadily.
- We know, based on our data, that $100K/month in revenue is the tipping point. That’s when Kakadoodle becomes fully profitable and self-sustaining.
We can do this. But we need help crossing the bridge.
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We’re All In
Five years ago, we left our modern suburban home and moved into a 150-year-old farmhouse, driven by a vague but urgent belief: that technology could help fix what’s broken in our food system.
Since then, MariKate and I have invested every dollar of our savings into Kakadoodle. The only remaining resource we have is our home equity... and we’re now tapping into it to give the business one final push toward sustainability.
It’s scary being this leveraged. To have literally everything on the line for Kakadoodle. But we believe in this model. We believe in this mission. And we believe this moment is bigger than just us.
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Why We’re Raising the Goal (Again)
We’ve increased our GoFundMe goal to help reduce the financial strain of relying solely on our home equity to reach profitability.
This additional support will help us:
- Support our new flock and cover ongoing care and feed as we ramp back up egg production
- Offset infrastructure costs made during the grant freeze—expenses we had to front without reimbursement
- Sustain and scale our operations smartly during this final stretch
- Reach profitability by mid-2026, when Kakadoodle becomes fully self-sustaining and no longer reliant on external funding
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The Bigger Vision
What we’re building isn’t just a farm.
It’s not just a food delivery service.
It’s a blueprint for a resilient, decentralized food system... one that doesn’t depend on chemicals, consolidation, or broken industrial supply chains.
We’re scaling carefully:
- First to profitability in Chicago-land
- Then prove it can be done again in a second region
- Eventually, across the country
If it can work here, it can work anywhere.
And if we can prove it, others can follow.
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How You Can Help
Donate – If you’ve given before and can give again, thank you. If it’s your first time, we’re incredibly grateful. Every gift matters.
Share – Your words help carry this mission further than we ever could alone.
Buy – For those in our delivery area: Continue to fill your weekly carts on kakadoodle.com. Vote with your grocery dollars and support us and the small farmers we work with.
Connect – If you know someone who believes in mission-aligned food systems and might want to invest, collaborate, or support us—please reach out. We are activity looking for strategic partnerships to help bring Kakadoodle to the next level.
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With full hearts and hope,
Marty & MariKate
Organizer
Marikate Thomas
Organizer
Matteson, IL