Peoples Bank of Munster in partnership with the Legacy Foundation and Accion, have formed the Small Business Development Pilot Project.

The program is designed to promote small business development in low- to moderate-income communities of Lake County, the organizations said in a June 4 joint statement. Turon Cummings of Whiting and owner of Creative Conecepts, received the first grant through the program.

Creative Conecepts sells cone shaped bread, stuffed with various fillings. Cummings purchased a food cart in 2014 with a loan from Accion to sell his cones at street festivals and received a second loan a year later to grow his business from a food cart to a food truck.

“At Peoples Bank, our mission is to make our customers and communities more successful,” said Greg Bracco, senior vice president, business banking manager for Peoples Bank. “We understand that small businesses are the backbone of the local economy, and this partnership between Peoples Bank, Legacy Foundation, and Accion provides needed working capital to local small business who are either just starting their business or expanding,”

Bracco said the program is geared towards businesses that may not have access to traditional sources of capital. He said the goal of this investment is to help businesses grow, be successful, and be able to access traditional capital sources in the future.

Accion is a nonprofit community lender, which identifies candidates for the Small Business Development Pilot Project that meet the following criteria:

· Eligible businesses must receive consulting from and been referred to Accion by the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center.

· Qualifying businesses must be located and developed by entrepreneurs from Lake County, Indiana communities/towns/cities that are identified as low-to-moderate income under HUD guidelines.

· Qualifying businesses must have secured a loan from Accion and will have repaid the loan in full within the repayment schedule established by Accion at the time the loan was made.

Legacy Foundation is a community foundation and the leading philanthropic partner serving Lake County, Indiana since 1992. Today, it manages more than 300 donor funds representing nearly $60 million in assets.