COVID-19 Relief Funds for Farmers

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COVID-19 Relief Funds for Farmers – What to do Right Now

This post discusses COVID-19 relief funds for farmers that are specifically available right now. It also discusses advocacy actions that may help make more funds available later. Please participate in that process! The Small Business Administration (SBA) is maintaining that farms and agricultural businesses are ineligible for emergency Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs meant to mitigate the economic harm of the COVID-19 pandemic. While aquaculture enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, nurseries, and some agritourism and value-added enterprises are eligible for SBA disaster assistance, farms are specifically excluded. 

For an in-depth review of the COVID-19 relief funds for farmers and small businesses available through the CARE Act recently passed by Congress, view the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s (PASA) recording of the April 7th webinar: COVID-19 Financial Assistance for Farms and Small Businesses. Below, find a few things you can do right now. 

1.) Connect with your local bank or lender to get details and apply for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – This program is for any small business with less than 500 employees (including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and (we currently believe) self employed persons, private non-profit organization or 501(c)(19) veterans organizations affected by COVID-19. Even if you are not feeling a financial impact of COVID-19 right now, we encourage you to apply because you may feel the impact later.

Learn how PPP is calculated, what supporting documents to bring, and see examples in The Farm and Food Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act. 

2.) Apply for a grant. American Farmland Trust and FACT are launching relief funds that many of you may qualify for:

• American Farmland Trust’s Farmer Relief Fund will award farmers with cash grants of up to $1,000 each. Eligible applicants include any small and mid-size direct-market producers with annual gross revenue of between $10,000 and $1 million from sales at farmers markets and/or direct sales to restaurants, caterers, schools, stores, or makers who use farm products as inputs. Applications are due April 23.
   
• FACT Emergency Mini Grants for Livestock and Poultry Farmers will award $500 on a rolling basis until funding is depleted. Eligible applicants own or are employed by a farm that raises livestock and/or poultry and express a commitment to raising their animals using humane management practices. Farmers can request mini-grants for materials, services or equipment that would help them to transition to an online or alternative sales strategy or for other projects that would help their farm business to maintain sales during this crisis. Apply here.

3.) Help ensure the USDA aids farmers impacted by COVID-19.

The USDA is making critical decisions this week about how to disburse billions in aid funding intended for farmers and ranchers impacted by COVID-19. Help ensure that aid is distributed equitably, reaches farmers selling into local and regional markets, is delivered in a simple and accessible manner, and goes to producers, not corporate agribusiness. Lenders, nonprofits, businesses, farmer groups, and more: Sign on here. Sign on deadline is Wedensday April 8, 6:00 pm EST. 

 

• Learn more about grants and loans for farmers at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/funding-resources/

• Learn more about farm risk management at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/farm-business-planning/risk-management/

• Learn more about Farm Policy and Agricultural Politics at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/farm-policy-agricultural-politics/

• Find tons of other useful farming resources at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/additional-farming-resources/