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 new Heartland Regional Food Business Center includes community food system initiatives among its working partnerships for their ground-level work developing essential capacity and connections.
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.
The Heartland Regional Food Business Center is dedicated to the business building needed to make local food an everyday, easy choice in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and northwest Arkansas.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces the creation of 12 new USDA Regional Food Business Centers that will provide coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers, and other food businesses across the nation.