Center for Regional Food Systems Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center

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

October 3, 2024 10:00AM - 11:00AM

Registration Deadline: October 2, 2024 - 05:00PM

Join the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center for a webinar on October 3 to help food or farm business with writing successful project plans and budgets grant applications. 

What you need to know: Project Planning and Budgeting for Grants
Thursday, October 3, 2024, 9 AM CST | 10 AM EST
Register: https://bit.ly/GrantPlan 

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 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. 

Our co-hosts

• Jamie Rahrig coordinates assistance for food and farm businesses through the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center at Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) and is part of the MSU Product Center team. In her role, Jamie develops and manages programs in partnership with organizations across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. She helps bring business coaching to the businesses from farm to fork with a goal of providing equitable access to healthy and affordable food.
• Julie Jesmer is the Business Builder Grant Program Manager for the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center at CRFS. In that role she is developing a process for distributing and identifying potential grantees for the Business Builder Awards. This includes setting up and managing the application as well as the review and evaluation processes.   

Join us for this webinar on October 3, 2024, 10 AM EST | 9 AM CST on Zoom, to learn more about developing a project plan and budget for grant applications. This session will be recorded and shared for those who cannot attend. Register by October 2, 5 PM EST, 4 PM CST. Register here - 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

Registration for this event has closed.