Wolf Administration Resources 42 Jobs to Boost City Agriculture Infrastructure, Defeat Food Deserts

​Harrisburg, PA – Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding now introduced acceptance for $500,000 in funding to aid 42 initiatives by the Pennsylvania Farm Bill’s City Agriculture Grant System. The assignments funded consist of almost everything from refrigeration equipment to agricultural infrastructure these as greenhouses, lifted beds, irrigation, and tools to deliver city ag operations every single option to thrive as they operate to feed and develop their communities.

“The pandemic has created a person detail abundantly clear: hyper-nearby food items creation is key to addressing foods insecurity, especially in urban places of the commonwealth where food items apartheids are a unfortunate actuality,” mentioned Redding. “Access to inexpensive contemporary and wholesome foodstuff is vital to making healthier communities and that was the impetus of this Urban Ag Software.

“These 42 initiatives are an possibility to improve agricultural consciousness, supply opportunities for palms-on mastering and group developing, and, of program, a means to enhance area meals accessibility and stop the cycle that limits financial alternatives and greater health,” included Redding.

The Urban Agriculture Grant System funded 18 microgrants and 24 collaboration grants for tasks that boost agriculture infrastructure in city spots, the aggregation of solution, sharing of means, and assist for community improvement endeavours.

Microgrants present funding up to $2,500 in matching money for one particular-time jobs or a single entity. Collaboration grants provide up to $50,000 in matching money for projects that shown cooperative or regional efforts to share methods, mixture agricultural merchandise or producers, encourage the sharing of sources amongst agricultural entities, and assist group advancement.

Counties with funded tasks contain Allegheny, Berks, Blair, Butler, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Luzerne, Montgomery, Philadelphia and York. Eligibility to be viewed as as “city” was identified by conditions from the Centre for Rural Pennsylvania.

The PA Farm Bill is a extensive set of programming and funding for Pennsylvania’s agriculture marketplace. With the third spherical of funding proposed in Governor Wolf’s 2021-22 budget, the PA Farm Bill will keep on to bolster the resiliency of the marketplace so quite a few count on to maintain everyday living.

For far more information about the Pennsylvania Farm Monthly bill check out agriculture.pa.gov/pafarmbill.

MEDIA Make contact with: Shannon Powers – [email protected]

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