The Story

Cierra and Michael Weatherly founded Vet First in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. The concept was born from their consulting company (C5BDI) located in VA Beach, VA. Since inception, C5BDI has donated 10% of annual sales back to the community on a monthly basis and lets each employee pick their charity of choice. With this concept of tithing, they wanted to lead and inspire change in America on how corporations give back to the community. Many said this was impossible and not sustainable – they have now been in business for 5+ years and have achieved double digit growth year over year annually.

At C5BDI, Cierra and Michael have always chosen non-profits that help both Veterans and those in need. They both come from military families and are very involved in giving back to the community. After continuously donating to these types of charities, they decided to combine their passion of helping Vets and those in need and start their own non-profit, thus Vet First Inc., a veteran garden was born. They named it “Inc.” because they wanted it to be a non-profit, with a for-profit culture. They work together with the Veterans on the farm to ensure sustainable and organic practices are followed to provide food to those in need in the local community. Although Ecco Adesso is the flagship for the operation, the intention is to roll-out the Vet First model to other counties in Virginia, and eventually the entire United States. We are currently in discussions with a few other farms to create other test beds for the concept.