A Great Grant Update
In the extreme heat of summer, the USDA grant funds that were frozen this February have FINALLY thawed! If all goes well, this means we can soon start the process of acquiring more cold storage, which will allow us to buy and store more local produce, grains, and protein for YOU (and others in Topeka)!
We are absolutely thrilled about this news, but it's tempered by the announcement that the organization administering the grant funds (the Heartland Regional Food Business Center) will be shutting down in September. The HRFBC is an incredibly helpful resource for us and for so many other local food businesses in this region. They provide free, one-on-one consultation on topics such as marketing that we have learned from and continue to apply to make Full Circle stronger. Their staff members listened to our challenges, provided advice, and connected us with resources and individuals in other locations who are working on projects like ours. Cutting this agency is a shame, and the local agricultural community will feel the loss. The USDA also announced that the second round of funding under this grant program will not be moving forward. Some of our partner producers had been planning to apply during the second round, so this is disappointing news for them.
The cuts to funding for small farm operations come as subsidies for commodity farms are expedited under the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. Most farm subsidies benefit big agricultural producers, but we believe small farms and food businesses also have an important role to play in our national food system. A country of monocrops and commodity farms is not as resilient to disruptions in the supply chain—be that natural disasters, disease, or any sort of crisis—as a country with thousands of thriving small farms and food businesses. That's to say nothing of the environmental benefits that small, sustainably focused farms offer. We don't begrudge large producers their government funding but believe there's benefit to supporting the small guys too.
And now back to the good news! Thank you for sending positive thoughts and encouragement as we've waited (sometimes patiently, sometimes less so) to hear an update on this grant. Please continue doing what you can to support local, sustainable agriculture at a time when support is becoming harder find for farmers and local food businesses like ours.
Onward and upward!
-Justine & Robert
