The Heartland Regional Food Business Center has selected 89 food and farm enterprises for $3.7 million in Round 1 funding through its USDA Business Builder Subaward grant program. The grantee finalists are among 479 enterprises that applied in Round 1 of the program with total requests of $20 million.
Finalization of grant awards is currently on hold pending U.S. Secretary of Agriculture review of the RFBC program. The Heartland Center will also hold opening its final Round 2 of the Business Builder Subaward grant program pending the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture review.
Heartland Center operations continue in the meantime. The 5-state team of 33 organizations provides free, ongoing business and technical assistance to local and regional food enterprises in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and northwest Arkansas.
Visit the Heartland Center web site to request assistance, sign up for e-news, learn about upcoming trainings and events, and more.
State by State View
Learn who the selected Business Builder grantee finalists are and what they plan to do with grant support, pending resolution of the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture program review.
Story Map. View the Heartland Center’s state-by-state presentation of Round 1 Business Builder grantee finalists. The story map shows where the businesses are located and provides an overview of their proposals.
Data Detail. The story map also includes a breakdown of key grant finalist data by state, such as types of enterprises, how long in business, and how urban or rural the operations are.
Check out the Business Builder grantee finalist data for:
Business Builder Benefits
Selected Business Builder grant projects represent a range of businesses involved in building the availability of locally grown, raised, and made food. Business Builder Subawards of $5,000 to $50,000 are designed to support projects focused on meeting regional needs and increasing capacity among food and farm businesses working toward expansion.
They are family farmers and ranchers, rural grocers, urban market gardeners, and food manufacturers and distributors.
Each aims to grow their business with Business Builder grant support for such critical investments as automation, packaging, delivery vehicles, e-commerce, processing equipment, and other diversification and expansion steps.
Communities across the Heartland Center’s region will benefit as these grantee finalists and other local and regional food businesses grow.
Benefits include local commerce and jobs, farmland preservation, availability of fresh and nutrient-dense local foods, and greater food security as new local food businesses and supply chain connections build resilience into the larger food economy.
The Heartland Center is a regional team of organizations focused on delivering these benefits through technical assistance to local food entrepreneurs, coordination with other resource providers and funding sources, and capacity building support through Business Builder Subaward grants.
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