Deadline: 10-Aug-22
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has requested proposals from non-profit, tribal, or local government entity, owner-operated farm for its Local Food System Infrastructure Grant in Washington.
The Washington State Legislature allocated $17 million from the coronavirus state fiscal recovery fund–federal for grants to support local food system infrastructure, supply chains, and market access for farms, food processors, and food distributors, with a portion of the funds prioritized for small business owners, including those owned by women and minorities.
Purpose
The fundamental purpose of this grant is to comply with the objectives of the state and federal funding to recover from the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19 impacts by:
- Rebuilding food supply chains by strengthening the capacity and resilience of local food infrastructure,
- Assisting small businesses to recover by improving their ability to gather, process, move, and store Washington-grown foods in Washington, and
- Assisting small agricultural producers to recover by fostering the creation and sale of value-added products in localmarkets.
Priorities
Priority consideration for grant funds will go to:
- Small farms and ranches (with less than $350,000 in average annual gross cash farm income)
- Small businesses other than farms or ranches (with less than $500,000 in average annual revenue)
- Projects that directly serve multiple small farms or ranches with infrastructure owned by, managed by, and/or tailored to the needs of small farms and ranches.
Funding& Duration information
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The grant has two categories based on the size of the project:
- For small projects the Grant amount is $15,000 to $250,000 and Grant project timeline is Sept. 2022 to June 30, 2023.
- For Large Projects the Grant amount is $250,001 to $1,000,000 and Grant project timeline is Sept. 2022 to June 30, 2023.
- WSDA anticipates awarding approximately $16 million in grants across the two categories of funding. WSDA reserves the right to increase or decrease award amounts at the Director’s discretion based on assessment of applications received and availability of funds.
- WSDA anticipates the Large Projects category will be more competitive than the Small Projects category. Applicants are encouraged to apply for the funding amount that best achieves their stated goals and is achievable by June 30th 2023. Reasonableness and achievability of the proposals will be an element of the application review.
- This is a reimbursement style grant. This means grantees will not receive up-front payment. Grantees will make approved purchases and payments and then submit reimbursement invoices for those costs to WSDA. WSDA reimburses (pays back) approved expenses.
Eligibility Criteria
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An owner-operated farm or ranch in Washington with less than $1 million in average annual gross cash farm income that sells some portion of their products in Washington state (or within 250 miles of the farm).
- An owner-operated farm is one in which the majority of the business is owned by the person/s involved in the day to day on-farm operation, including co-operatively owned and operated farms or ranches Businesses
- Average annual income is averaged over the past three years.
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A food business with less $5 million dollars in average annual revenue, and fewer than 200 full time employees, whose primary function is to gather, process, manufacture, move, or store, or sell Washington foods grown, caught, or raised in Washington (or within 250 miles of the farm where the agricultural products originated).
- Average annual revenue is averaged over the past 3 years.
- Revenue and employee count must include parent company and subsidiaries and across all geographies where the company operates.
- A non-profit, tribal, or local government entity that is directly enabling small and midsize Washington farms and ranches to access or improve aggregation, processing, and distribution of their products in Washington (or within 250 miles of the farm), or otherwise directly enabling their access to markets within Washington (or within 250 miles of the farm) . This grant may not be used for sub-awards or pass-through funding.
For more information, visit Local Food System Infrastructure Grant.
For more information, visit https://agr.wa.gov/departments/business-and-marketing-support/small-farm/infrastructure/grant-guidelines