Monday, August 18, 2025

Register Now! 3 Upcoming Webinars for Food and Farm Business Owners

Join the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center for three upcoming webinars to support food and farm business owners in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Get Grant-Ready: How Farmers Can Use Cash-flow to Prepare for Funding

August 21, 2025, 12:30 PM CST | 1:30 PM EST

Understanding how to prepare for different types of financing available to farm businesses can help farmers be ready for opportunities and challenges.

Featured Speakers:

Jamie Rahrig, Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems and MSU Product Center
Andy Larson, Food Finance Institute of the Universities of Wisconsin System

Driving Demand: Identifying your Target Consumer and Crafting a Story that will Sell

August 27, 2025, 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST

Understanding your customer and their purchasing habits is key to increasing sales. Join the Great Lakes Regional Food Business Center team and speakers from Integral CPG to understand more about growing your sales.

Featured Speakers:

Glenn Pappalardo, Integral CPG
Arwen Kimmell, Integral CPG
Jamie Rahrig, Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems and MSU Product Center

Tribal Food Producer Information Session

September 10, 2025 11:30 AM CT | 12:30 PM ET

Tribal food producers in the Midwest can connect and learn together about resources available to help build their businesses. If you are a packaged foods maker looking to understand the requirements of labeling, packaging, and marketing a food product, join this session to learn more.

Featured Speakers:

Jen Falck (Oneida Nation), Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture and Food Systems
Jamie Rahrig, Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems and MSU Product Center
Jazmin Bolan-Williamson, Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems

These sessions will be recorded and shared at glm-rfbc.msu.edu. For more information, please reach out to 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 farmers, producers, and other food business owners, in support of a more resilient 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 Universities 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

Per the USDA announcement on July 15, 2025, the Regional Food Business Center program has been terminated. The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center will continue operations through mid-September. More information is available here.