Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program in the US

Deadline: 22-Nov-21

The Agricultural Marketing Service is pleased to announce the Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program to provide grants to small businesses in certain commodity areas including small scale specialty crop producers and processors, other select producers, meat and other processors, distributors, and farmers market to respond to coronavirus, including for measures to protect workers against novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID–19).

Activities

Grants will cover the activities associated with:

Workplace Safety Measures: Workplace safety measures, including, but not limited to, personal protective equipment, sanitizer, hand washing stations, air filters, thermometers, cleaning supplies, or similar items.
Market Pivots: Market pivots such as transition to virtual / online sales costs (online platform development and fees, online marketing, credit card processing fees), supplies, new signage.
Retrofitting Facilities: Retrofitting facilities for worker and consumer safety (plexiglass, walk up windows, heat lamps, fans, tents, propane, weights, tables, chairs).
Transportation: Additional transportation costs incurred to maintain social distancing.
Worker Housing: Additional worker housing costs incurred to maintain social distancing or to allow for quarantining of new or exposed employees.
Medical: Unreimbursed costs associated with providing or enabling vaccinations, testing, or healthcare treatment of infected employees, including any paid leave.

Funding Information

The minimum funding request amount is $ 1,500. The maximum funding request amount is $ 20,000. Funding requests may range from $ 1,500 to $ 20,000.

Eligibility Criteria

The eligible entity types include:
- Small Businesses
- Nonprofits
All applicants must be domestic entities owned, operated, and located within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
While USDA is focusing this first round of funding to small businesses, USDA may expand eligibility in future rounds of funding to include additional businesses not covered by the first round. Future rounds are dependent upon availability of funds. USDA is also focusing this first round of funding on certain commodities due to the unique impacts of the pandemic on their busines.