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. Finalization of grant awards is currently on hold pending U.S. Secretary of Agriculture review of the RFBC program.
The Heartland Regional Food Business Center’s team of 32 business support organizations have been busy since the program’s 2023 start. They have been serving clients across the region and working to build a strong and sustainable network dedicated to building the local and regional food economy.
The Lawrence, Kansas, school district’s new Community Connections Bakery will source 51 percent of its grains from local farmers. It will produce whole grain baked goods for school meals serving some 10,000 K-12 students.
The Turtle Island Trade Coalition is an Indigenous-created and Indigenous-led program embedded within the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), established specifically to develop a Great Plains Indigenous food hub and restore historical trade relationships.
Heartland Center collaborator Springfield Community Gardens brought together industry experts for a two-part webinar series on expanding to institutional sales.
K-State Research and Extension is hiring two positions to support its role in the Heartland Regional Food Business Center.
Practitioner work groups along with regional asset mapping and analysis are two projects advancing the Heartland Center’s work to serve as a regional hub supporting food and farm entrepreneurs.
Heartland Regional Food Business Center partners are adding staff and connecting efforts to help ensure that small, mid-size diversified farm and food businesses find the help they need no matter who they are, or where they are.