2025 was a year of growth.
Our team was able to participate in over 10 tabling events, 4 presentations, and 2 community events in 2025 and we are excited to attend more this year, with revamped materials to help better amplify our mission.
In 2025, we served the Cuyahoga county region and beyond, covering 37 cities! We’d like to extend a thank you to our current partners:
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United Way Services of Geauga County for their Bridges@Work program
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Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development Development (NEOHCED) and Cuyahoga County for working to support minority/women-owned small businesses
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May Dugan for being a great referral partner and offering free financial counseling to our applicants and borrowers
We are always looking for more partners to help expand our efforts in order to serve more in our Northeast Ohio community.
Similar to 2024, Bridges@Work is our most popular loan type. Bridges@Work loans help address unexpected financial challenges that workers in Geauga County can experience. Partnered with United Way of Geauga County and Catholic Charities, HFLA helps provide loans that can solve work-related emergency expenses. We are looking froward on 2026 to see this loan product expand to Cuyahoga county!
But since Bridges@Work loans can only go up to $1,500, they do not accumulate to being our largest loan product. HFLA made $221,803 in business loans in 2025, making up the largest loan amount. HFLA business loans can go up to $20,000.
In 2025, we had a loan repayment rate of 89% and are always looking at different strategies to stay connected to borrowers throughout the repayment journey.
HFLA implemented text messaging in our collections efforts to offer even more touch points, ensuring successful repayment of loans. We have started to see great success! Text messaging has shown an increase of 10% in response to HFLA outreach.
We are excited in 2026 to see what other strategies could assist in keeping the repayment accessible and flexible. Every borrower’s story is different, and getting them to financial stability is not a one-size-fits-all situation. HFLA has the ability to make those adjustments as needed, emphasizing our mission to be a relationship lender.
Leslie Elston believes you live your life in seasons. Very few things are consistent, but that is all a part of seasonal change.
Growing up in New York City, coming to Cleveland 30 years ago for work was a major change. Cleveland Hopkins (and the city of Cleveland in general) is a much slower pace than Newark International Airport–where he had worked for years after his time with the Air Force–, and Leslie had to adjust to the big culture shift going from the City that Never Sleeps to the city many refer to as Mistake on the Lake–though he disagrees with that nomenclature.
In 2012, Elston’s wife unfortunately suffered an injury from a work-related accident and was bedridden for two years due to a broken coccyx. It felt like all the solutions doctors had posed to them weren’t helping alleviate pain, so Elston decided to take matters into his own hands.
After discovering his wife’s iron deficiency, he searched for the best supplements to help. And Popeye’s magic boost became his own: spinach.
Creating his own spinach soup, he and his wife saw some genuine improvements. Elston figures that it’s helpful to “use soup as a healthy way to get nutrients… and it tastes good.”
A new season in his life began: Maraq Gourmet Soup Shop.
Spending three years exploring different cultures’ cuisines and perfecting his recipe, Maraq Gourmet Soup Shop now boasts 18 varieties of vegetable broth-based soups, with 4 more on the way. Partnered with Central Kitchen, Elston has a small but mighty crew of three: himself and his two mentees, who help with cooking and learning the ropes of running a business. Elston is proud of how well they have taken direction and is happy to instill in them that “no matter what age, you can start a business.”
Maraq was slowly getting its legs, and Elston had even been working with the Urban League to get some business insight. But his personal credit was being dragged down by the cumbersome medical debt he was still trying to pay off. He had taken out a personal loan and had successfully paid off over half, but with 27% interest, it felt like the finish line kept being pushed further and further away.
Felicia Townsend of the Urban League suggested reaching out to HFLA to see if anything could be done to expedite the loan payoff process. HFLA was able to reduce his payments with zero interest, and in 3 years, he paid off all his debt. Paying off his loan faster even helped improve his credit, going from the mid-500s to 770!
With his debt out of the way, Leslie was able to dedicate more time to growing his business and supporting HFLA by donating through the Sprouts Club program, a monthly donation group. Sprouts Club members give a recurring monthly gift to help support HFLA’s loan cycle and ensure programming gets the assistance needed to keep our revolving loan fund going.
As Maraq continued to take off, another hurdle appeared. Committed to customer service, Leslie personally delivers all his orders. But his trusty Cadillac was getting older, and he was left in a predicament trying to figure out his next steps.
He ran into HFLA at a business event and was able to secure a business loan this time to purchase a new, roomy SUV to complete his deliveries.
“HFLA was a seasonal change in my life. But it has become, over the years, consistent.”
Relationships ebb and flow, but it is important to hold on to those that are mutually beneficial. HFLA was able to step in and help Leslie when a financial roadblock came along, and in turn, Leslie has been able to support other borrowers by paying back his loan in full and donating to HFLA to pay it forward.
As for advice he’d give budding entrepreneurs, his thoughts are three-pronged:
- Creativity is within us all
- Don’t quit
- Even a baby step is a step forward
The future is bright for Leslie and Maraq Gourmet Soup Shop! In 2026, he hopes to have a more consistent customer base, hoping that Central Kitchen’s expansion will help facilitate more productivity due to the space being 3 times bigger than their previous location. Leslie keeps an optimistic attitude about what lies ahead, both in his own professional career and his local community.
Where does Pastor Elston imagine that Cleveland will be in a couple of years? Well, he sees growth in Cleveland’s future, comparable to large metropolitan areas like Atlanta. He has no problems dreaming big and wishes those who think negatively of Cleveland would drive around and see the development of the older neighborhoods, specifically the Midtown area. The more we invest in our communities, the more we will see them grow.