Missouri Regional Farm + Food System Grants: Entrepreneurship and Business Support

Missouri Regional Farm + Food System Grants: Entrepreneurship and Business Support is sponsored by Patterson Family Foundation/New Growth. This grant opportunity strengthens rural entrepreneurship by supporting mentorship, technical assistance, and programming that helps entrepreneurs start, sustain, and grow their businesses.

Business assistance to Missouri and Kansas farmers serving local and regional markets will grow with a new $2. 15 million Patterson Family Foundation grant to rural community development organization New Growth. With offices in Appleton City, Bolivar, and El Dorado Springs, Missouri, New Growth builds small farms, small businesses, and small communities with innovative resources and programs.

New Growth will hire a farm business counselor and support three partners -- The Food Circle, The Kansas City Food Hub, and University of Missouri Extension -- in providing business assistance and market access to rural food and farm enterprises in the Foundation’s western Missouri and Kansas catchment area.

Funding includes $1 million for grants to support those enterprises in building their capacity to bring local food products to market. In addition, the two-year Patterson Family Foundation grant will support New Growth’s continued work with a larger, 5-state team of business assistance partners after USDA recently cut funding for the Heartland Regional Food Business Center.

Now, as the Heartland Food Business Coalition, participating organizations remain committed to the regional collaboration needed to most effectively build local food businesses, markets, and supply chains. New Growth convenes and supports this growing group effort across Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and northwest Arkansas.

“Business assistance tailored to the needs and opportunities of small farms supplying local food markets is an important focus for rural economic development,” said Katie Nixon, director of New Growth’s Food Systems Program. “This grant is a critical and welcome investment in the potential for small farms in our region to be a big part of revitalizing their rural communities and building food supply resilience.

” Heartland Food Business Coalition partners provide specialized and regionally integrated assistance that food and farm entrepreneurs serving local and regional markets have difficulty finding; most food and agricultural business support and market development resources remain largely committed to commodity production for global markets.

Activities that New Growth and partners will conduct with the newly awarded Patterson Family Foundation grant include: * Business training workshops * One-on-one business coaching and technical assistance, including market connections. * Business expansion grants to food and farm entrepreneurs. * Logistical support to aggregators and distributors of local foods (food hubs).

* Coordination among food hubs for greater regional supply and distribution. * Regional resource development, including small farm financing. To learn more, contact New Growth and partners via the shared Heartland Food Business Coalition website heartlandfoodbusiness.

org.