Business Builder Grants Help Farmers & Ranchers Find Their Footing in Western Kansas

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Heartland Regional Food Business Center (RFBC) has made over $3.7 million in Business Builder Grants available to support small, mid-sized, and diverse food and farm entrepreneurs. The Western Kansas Rural Economic Development Association (WKREDA) says these grants promote business expansion, job creation, business capacity building, and increase local products in Kansas.

The Heartland Regional Food Business Center helps farm and food enterprises start up, grow, and make supply chain connections needed to serve growing demand for local and regionally produced food. It’s one of 12 across the nation established in 2023 by the USDA to support the development of a more resilient, diverse, and competitive food system. The organization has over 30 partners, including K-State Research and Extension, the Kansas Rural Center (KRC), to provide localized, proactive assistance to small, mid-size, and diverse entrepreneurs.The KRC works with its partners to fill gaps in resources available to local food and farm businesses so they’re ready to start and grow. The organization is led by and for farmers who work to help each other and support the growth of a sustainable food and farming system in Kansas. The KRC envisions a future of thriving family farms, revitalized communities, a clean environment, healthy local and regional food systems, and viable livelihoods for current and next generation farmers.

Business Builder seeds future farmer growth

Local and regional food systems are essential to the overall food supply chain and regional food business centers like the Heartland Regional Food Business Center are the bedrock of efforts to support them. Projects funded through the organization’s Business Builder program further the center’s vision of making the Western Kansas region a place where locally produced food is a major contributor to a resilient and safe food supply.

The USDA Heartland Regional Food Business Center has received a total of $11.15 million for their Business Builder program. The center’s Business Builder program accepts proposals semi-annually for competitive subawards of $5,000 to $50,000 each. The Heartland Center prioritizes:

• Small farms and small businesses in urban and rural areas that operate along the local and regional food value chain
• Food and farm entrepreneurs who are indigenous, immigrant, people of color, veterans, and otherwise disadvantaged, such as those with physical disabilities.  
• Food and farm entrepreneurs who are eager and ready to build their enterprises, from startup through growth
• Food and farm entrepreneurs who are unsure of eligibility and where to go for assistance and unfamiliar with resources

“The Business Builder grant provides much needed capital to build and strengthen local food systems in Western Kansas, says Ryan Russell, Executive Director of the WKREDA. “The Heartland Center helps to support our food and farm businesses.”