9 & 10 News
Rural Development Grants Boost Northern Michigan Businesses This project really couldn’t get off the ground without the additional funding from this grant. - Tori Beckett, Great Lakes Tissue Co.
February 15, 2021
Rural communities across the state are getting some financial help from a new round of state grants. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is awarding 20 different businesses a total of $1.7 (M) dollars. The goal is to boost their productivity and support rural communities.
The Rural Development Fund grants are landing in rural destinations– and most of them are grants worth $100,000. Sam Simpson is an owner at Harbor Hills Fruit Farms, which is also the parent company to Good Harbor Vineyards and Aurora Cellars. “We’ve been going through a really large growth phase in the last 5-7 years. We’re actually putting in 40 more acres of grapes this year.”
ABC 10/CW5
LANSING The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has awarded 20 Rural Development Fund Grants designed to promote the sustainability of land-based industries and support infrastructure that benefits rural communities.
“Rural Michigan isn’t some strange, faraway, uninhabited land,” said MDARD Director Gary McDowell. “Most of the people in this great state are either from or currently live in rural areas, so these grants have a real impact on the lives of people we know and in communities not far from our own. Rural Michigan has unlimited potential, but it needs opportunity. The Rural Development Fund grants help provide those opportunities.”