Press release
Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Dauphin, Lancaster, Montgomery, Philadelphia, York county projects funded
Philadelphia, PA – Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding today announced approval for $520,000 in funding to support 23 projects through the Pennsylvania Farm Bill’s Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Grant Program. The projects funded include agricultural infrastructure such as greenhouses, raised beds, solar equipment and tools to provide urban ag operations every opportunity to succeed as they work to feed and build their communities.
“These grant funds directly address food system gaps, encourage community collaboration, and create opportunities for people to become social entrepreneurs,” said Redding. “And, most importantly, these funds address food system injustices by increasing agricultural awareness and improving local food access.”
“Since the grant program’s inception through the 2019 PA Farm Bill, the Wolf Administration has invested more than $1.5 million in urban agriculture through 93 projects across 19 counties,” added Redding.
The 2021-22 Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Grant Program funded nine microgrants and 14 collaboration grants for projects that improve agriculture infrastructure in urban areas, the aggregation of product, sharing of resources, and support for community development efforts.
Microgrants provide funding up to $2,500 in matching funds for one-time projects or a single entity. Collaboration grants provide up to $50,000 in matching funds for projects that demonstrated cooperative or regional efforts to share resources, aggregate agricultural products or producers, promote the sharing of resources among agricultural entities, and support community development.
Through support from the MidAtlantic Farm Credit, the budget for this year’s program increased in October 2021 from $500,000 to $520,000. Eligibility to be considered as “urban” was determined by criteria from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.
Author: Amaury Abreu
