SHEPHERDSTOWN For the second year-in-a-row, the Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry will be acquiring locally-grown, organic produce for its clients from Table
WASHINGTON D.C. â The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it is accepting applications for grants to establish and operate Agriculture Innovation Centers.
USDA is making $7.4 million available under the Agriculture Innovation Center Program. Agriculture Innovation Centers may use the grants to provide technical assistance to help agricultural producers develop and market value-added agricultural products using a variety of options, except joint marketing efforts. The centers may provide the following types of assistance:
⢠Financial advisory services to develop, expand or operate a business owned by an agricultural producer.
⢠Process development services, such as engineering, production system scale ups, scale production assessments and systems development.
Grant promotes statewide collaboration with Franklin County CDC
Published: 2/7/2021 6:00:06 PM
GREENFIELD The Franklin County Community Development Corporation (CDC) was recently awarded a $895,000 Agriculture Innovation Center grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), that will allow it to collaborate with food and farm businesses statewide.
“(The program)’s goal is to help farmers add value to their production,” said Franklin County CDC Executive Director John Waite.
Instead of just growing and selling peppers, for example, farmers would make peppers into a wholesale product, such as pepper jam.
“The grant is to provide them the business planning to help them do that,” he said. “(Franklin County CDC) is going to hire two people, who will be available throughout the state, that have experience in financial and marketing plans. A lot of farmers, they know how to farm and they do that really well, but they may not have the business experience to