A New Future: Winning a USDA Value-Added Producer Grant

Reader Contribution by Julia Shewchuck

Value-Added Producer Grant

We Got The Grant – Wooooohooooo – Oh Boy – Now What? You may remember my blog from February 25th of this year. These were my closing sentences: “Looking back after a week, I have to admit, the experience was worth it. It made me assess and think through my project. The feeling of finally submitting this grant application was awesome. If, through some miracle, we receive it, it will be just absolutely fabulous. If we don’t, we haven’t lost anything, except for some sleep. My advice, if you are really, really, really serious about your chances, hire a grant writer, especially if it’s kidding season.”

So, around the end of May, our USDA area office told us that ours was one of two grants in Florida that was sent on to the national level. We were told: “That is really good news, but don’t get your hopes up, the national level is really competitive”. We were thrilled anyway.

Well, we got the news yesterday with a call from Florida’s Senator Nelson’s office: “We are calling to congratulate you on receiving the USDA Value-Added Producer Grant!”

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