The Southwest Regional Food Business Center’s (SWRFBC) Business Builder Award Program will support supply chain resiliency and pandemic response by building the capacity of small and mid-sized food producers, businesses, or networks of businesses.
Donor Name: Southwest Regional Food Business Center (SWRFBC)
State: Arizona
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 02/15/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
Awards are intended to support the development of local and regional food supply chains by providing capital directly to businesses to access and/or expand market outlets and connect with local and regional supply chains.
The SWRFBC’s Business Builder Award Program’s overarching goal is to strengthen the viability of small and mid-sized farm and food businesses through:
- Developing strong and compliant farm and food business
- Expanding access to new or existing markets
- Increasing and/or diversifying the revenue of farm and food businesses
- Developing food supply chains.
State Priority Areas
Arizona has identified priorities listed below to address the current needs of Arizona’s supply chain resiliency. Projects that meet one or more or the following priorities will be given additional consideration. You are still eligible to apply if your project does not meet the priority areas.
- Projects that are located in or directly benefit:
- Zip codes that are located in a distressed or at-risk community, as defined by the EIG Distressed Communities Index or categorized as Socially Vulnerable, as defined by the USDA Social Vulnerability Index
- Infrastructure projects that expand access to markets for small and mid-sized producers
- Increasing food processing capacity for small and mid-sized producers
- Developing food supply chains
- Expanding regional cooperatives and aggregation strategies that benefit small producers.
Funding Information
The Business Builder Award Program will allocate $840,000 from 2025-2027, with grants ranging from $75,000 to $100,000, to financially assist local farmers, ranchers and processors, along with one-on-one business consulting, marketing and training support.
Grant Period
June 1, 2025 – October 31, 2026.
Eligible Projects and Costs
- Eligible projects include, but are not limited to:
- Business planning, feasibility studies, market analysis
- Brand development and marketing materials
- Product developing, labeling, and packaging
- Food safety compliance, training, and planning
- Value-chain coordination salaries, operating costs, and equipment/vehicles
- Improving processing, marketing, and distribution services
- Examples of allowable costs include, but are not limited to:
- Equipment, staff time, packaging, consulting, brand collateral, software.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants include:
- Agricultural producers, growers, value-added producers
- Aggregator, distributor, processor, food hub
- Cooperative, non-profit organization
- Retailer, farmers market.
For more information, visit SWRFBC.
