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Agriculture Division Offers Grants to Farmers, Others Who Improve Alaska's Food Security

Division of Agriculture

The state Division of Agriculture is offering grants to help Alaskans improve our ability to feed ourselves.Ag Division Director Dave Schade says the agency’s microgrant program is intended to improve the state’s food security by promoting ways to grow food locally and store it safely. And to educate fellow Alaskans on the importance of food security.

“We want individuals and nonprofits and groups that deal with food security to come forward and work on innovative ways to increase that food security,” Schade said in an interview last week.

Locally grown food generally is healthier and more environmentally friendly than food imported from the Lower 48 or other countries. And because it doesn’t have to be imported through a very long supply chain, Schade says locally produced food will still be available on supermarket shelves after a natural disaster like an earthquake or pandemic interrupts that supply chain.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear actually how vulnerable the state of Alaska is in our supply chain,” he said.

Alaskans and organizations that qualify may apply for the three-year grants, which offer up to 15-thousand dollars per person and up to 30-thousand dollars per organization.

“Five thousand dollars per year, for up to three years for an individual, and $10,000 dollars a year for up to three years for an organization,” Schade said.

The two-year, $3.6 million-dollar program is funded through the federal Department of Agriculture.

An Ag Division news release says applications will be prioritized based on the projects’ ability to improve Alaska’s food security. Eligible projects include small-scale gardening, small-scale herding and livestock operations, and/or projects that improve access to food, safe food storage and awareness of the importance of food security.

Applicants must complete their applications by Feb. 15.

More information is available on Agriculture Division’s website.

Tim has worked in the news business for over three decades, mainly as a newspaper reporter and editor in southern Arizona. Tim first came to Alaska with his family in 1967, and grew up in Delta Junction before emigrating to the Lower 48 in 1977 to get a college education and see the world.