USDA Announces 2017 FMPP Grantees

      Posted On: September 29, 2017

This week, USDA awarded 52 Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grants totalling 13.4 million dollars. FMC extends our warmest congratulations to all recipients, especially our members and partners who were awarded FMPPs this year, including the Food Trust, National Young Farmers Coalition, Ecology Center, the Center for Rural Affairs, Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association, Florida Organic Growers, GrowNYC, and the Hoosier and Washington State and Farmers Market Associations to name but a few.

This year’s FMPP grantees represent the diversity and dynamism of the work being done across America to connect local producers with directly with consumers. In Alabama, Birmingham’s Lee Branch Farmers Market hopes to double in size in the coming years and will use its FMPP funding to provide technical assistance to veteran farmers hoping to sell at the market. In Ohio, the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks will use its FMPP to build capacity at the Athens Farmers Market to better serve the needs of the farms and ranches in the state’s southeast region.

2017’s FMPP grants support projects in 33 states, including projects to expand nutrition assistance programs in Mississippi, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, and California. In Clarksdale, Mississippi the Mississippi Delta Council will begin work on an ambitious plan to connect 20,000 of their food insecure neighbors with fresh produce at Clarksdale’s Crossroads Farmers Markets, as well as the Council’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), mobile market, and farm-to-school programs.

Since its creation in 2002, FMPP funding has assisted local producers to grow their businesses by helping them connect directly with the shoppers at farmers markets, roadside stands and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. During that time, the number of farmers markets in America has more than doubled from 3,137 to over 8,684 today. FMPP grantees report an average 27% increase in vendor sales since receiving their grant, and 94% report an increase in first time market customers.

Check out the full list of grantees and their project descriptions here.

Read FMC’s press release: USDA Awards $13.4 Million to Farmers Market Promotion Program Grantees 

Check out other press about FMPP recipients and projects across the country:

Community Foodworks (Washington, D.C.)

Hoosier Farmers Market Association (Indiana)

Alaska’s Cook Inletkeeper (Alaska)

Franklin County Farmers Market (Kentucky)

Growing Hope (Michigan)

Community Farmers Markets (Georgia)

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (Massachusetts)