BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is launching a nationwide program that’s designed to help combat food insecurity in rural areas.
The USDA is allocating 60 million dollars in grants and loans to rural communities across the country.
The Food Access and Retail Expansion or F.A.R.E. Fund is part of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative.
Andrew Stacy of the Morgantown branch of the USDA says this program will help people get food in their communities rather than having to travel far for quality food.
“It’s meant to increase access to healthy foods, provide new market opportunities for farmers, and stabilize small and independent retailers, and create quality jobs and economic opportunities in low-income communities,” said Stacy.
Over the next 5 years, the HFFL FARE Fund will be using the loan and grant monies to help build and maintain existing grocery stores in these food deserts.
Stacy says it’ll provide a broad range of financial assistance from land acquisition, equipment purchases, and building costs.
“It also offers funding for business support or technical assistance for those projects that are in their early stages, it supports market and feasibility studies that planning process, business planning, and store supplies so it really does cover a broad range,” said Stacy.
Stacy says West Virginia is one of the most rural states in the country and is particularly impacted by food deserts.
He says one of the bonuses of this program for the state is that 20 of the state’s counties are part of the Rural Partners Network Community.
Applications for projects in these counties get extra priority.
“Typically those are some of the most rural parts of the state and so if an organization from one of those locations applied they’d get extra points just based off of that,” said Stacy.
The application window is opening in August.
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