What you need to know: Project Planning & Budgeting for Grants

October 3, 2024, 10:00 AM EST | 9:00 AM CST

Join the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center for a webinar on October 3 to help prepare your food or farm business for upcoming grant applications.

Writing a strong project outline and budget are important to access grant funding. In this webinar on October 3, 2024, 10 AM EST, 9 AM CST, Sarah Larson and Andy Larson of the Food Finance Institute at University of Wisconsin System will explain how food and farm businesses can incorporate project planning and budgeting for awards, such as grants, into overall business and financial planning. Past and current business performance, future projections and goals, and how grant or project budgets intersect with business and financial planning will all be addressed.

Jamie Rahrig and Julie Jesmer, both part of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) team supporting the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center, will also share about assistance and funding opportunities coming in 2024. This includes the first phase of the Business Builder grant program for food and/or farm businesses in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin in late 2024. Over $10 million dollars will be distributed across the region to assistance providers and through the grant program over the next four years.

Our Featured Speakers

Sarah Larson, Director, Food Finance Institute, has a slew of experience working with and within food-focused businesses in both the private and public sector. She was the first employee at Wisconsin Specialty Protein (WSP) where she helped launch the national tera’swhey® brand. In her many roles at WSP, she managed key tasks of business operations from finance to sales. She has also worked for Death’s Door Spirits and was a National Sales Manager at Tribe 9 Foods. Additionally, Sarah managed the Wisconsin statewide AmeriCorps Farm to School Program at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection and served as the Farm to Business Program Director at nonprofit REAP Food Group. She currently serves on the FairShare CSA Coalition and the Willy Street Co-op Board of Directors.
Andy Larson, Farm Outreach Specialist, Food Finance Institute, works with entrepreneurial farm businesses to help them build farm financial management capacity and access the capital they need to grow. He provides one-on-one counseling sessions, builds financial projections, and teaches programs like Farm Finance Boot Camp. Andy has expertise in farm business and marketing, agricultural lending, and grantsmanship. Prior to joining the Food Finance Institute, Andy worked as an agriculture lender at a community bank, and as a small farms extension educator in Iowa and Illinois. Andy and his family own and operate a small-scale, pastured poultry enterprise just down the road from the dairy farm where he grew up. They produce free-range brown eggs for local restaurants and retail stores.

Join us Thursday, October 3, 9:00 AM CT | 10:00 AM ET on Zoom, to learn more about applying for grants. This session will be recorded and shared at glm-rfbc.msu.edu and on Youtube.

Link to register: https://bit.ly/GrantPlan

For more information, email glm-rfbc@msu.edu or visit glm-rfbc.msu.edu.

About the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center

The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center is dedicated to offering coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building opportunities for small- to mid-sized or historically marginalized food and farm business entrepreneurs in support of a more resilient, diverse, and competitive food system. Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (MI) coordinates the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center that is comprised of network coordinators – Chicago Food Policy Action Council (IL), Northwest Indiana Food Council (IN), Food Finance Institute of the University of Wisconsin System (WI), and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Food Systems – who seek to take a transformational, rather than transactional, approach. Learn more at glm-rfbc.msu.edu

Support for the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service Regional Food Business Centers Program. The 12 USDA Regional Food Business Centers support all 50 U.S. States and Territories, and are inclusive of all types of agricultural products produced locally or regionally.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider. USDA Non-Discrimination Statement