Kane County is offering $755,000 in grants to food-growing businesses and organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced recently.
Applications are now being accepted for the Kane County Food and Farm Resiliency Grant Program, which offers grants between $5,000 to $50,000, according to a news release about the program. Applications must be submitted online through Submittable before the submission deadline of 5 p.m. Oct. 8.
According to the release, priority will be given to small farms and those addressing food insecurity, though officials said in the release that they encourage all local food growers to apply.
Funding for the program comes from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and does not come at the expense of county taxpayers, according to Matthew Tansley with the Kane County Development and Community Services Department.
Tansley said the program is targeting just those businesses and organizations that grow food for human consumption because those are the farms that were most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Every farm is different, but many lost contracts with wholesalers or took on additional expenses to adjust the way they operated, such as through contactless pick up or online platforms to sell directly to customers.
“The impetus for this program is to kind of give that sector the opportunity to recover from those impacts but also be in a stronger position if there’s another economic downturn or other challenges that affect the supply chain the way the pandemic did,” Tansley said.
Grant funds will reimburse farms for operating expenses they took on between March 3, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2025, according to Tansley. He said that grants cannot go directly to capital projects because of restrictions on what federal relief funds can be spent on.
However, if a farm is planning to make a larger investment than is allowed under the grant program’s guidelines, the program could instead help to cover eligible recurring operating expenses to free up funds for the farm to make those investments, Tansley said.
Generally, operating expenses are equipment, supplies and farm labor costs, but could also include sales and marketing expenses, farm utility fees and livestock purchases, among other costs, according to the Notice of Funding Opportunity.
That document can be found at: kanecountyil.gov/Documents/ARPA/Food-and-Farm-Resilliency-Grant.pdf
To be eligible, farms have to be actively growing and raising food in Kane County and actively selling or donating farm products in Kane County, according to a flyer about the program. Tansley said farms will also need to have been in operation since before 2019.
The Kane County Food and Farm Resiliency Grant Program is not just for for-profit businesses, according to Tansley. He said non-profits that have a mission of growing food for the public are also eligible for grants.
“We do have some non-profit organizations that grow foods for food pantries and for other types of food security programs, and so we wanted to recognize the benefit that those organizations play in helping to reach some of the more vulnerable populations in Kane County’s communities that don’t have easy, affordable access to fresh and locally-grown foods,” Tansley said.
Food-growing farms have been a policy focus of the Kane County Board for years, particularly with the Growing for Kane Program approved by the County Board in 2013, according to Tansley.
The county’s website about the program lists a number of initiatives launched under the program, including the Kane County Food and Farm Resiliency Grant Program, along with resources for local farmers.
Those looking to apply for the Food and Farm Resiliency Grant Program can submit their applications at: kanecountygovernment.submittable.com/submit/306977/kane-county-food-andfarm-resiliency-project
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
