Thanks to Civic San Diego and Accion San Diego for this story!
Civic San Diego provided Accion San Diego, a nonprofit microlender, $400,000 in lending capital from the Civic San Diego Loan Fund in 2017. This capital is supporting small businesses in communities that have a median household income of $60,000 or below. One of the businesses who received funds was The Heart and Trotter Butchery located in the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association (BIA). Voted San Diego City Beat’s Best Butcher Shop the last three years, the Heart and Trotter is a whole animal butchery offering the highest quality, hormone and antibiotic free meats and products sourced from local sustainable ranchers and businesses.
“The Heart and Trotter butcher shop is run quite differently from modern meat markets today,” said owner James Holtslag. “We buy whole animals direct from the rancher, they are then sent to harvest, and the meat is shipped 
directly to our shop. We are a full-service whole animal butcher shop; sustainability is just one exclusive characteristic that sets us apart from all other meat markets in San Diego.”
In February 2018, the owners received a $35,000 loan, which sustained five jobs and allowed them to purchase equipment for their kitchen. In honor of the shop’s contributions to the community and financial success, they and the BID A2C program hosted a small business celebration on June 11 at The Heart & Trotter Butcher Shop.