A Message from the Center | | |
The Northwest and Rocky Mountain USDA Regional Food Business Center Announces Grantees for Colorado and Idaho Business Builder Grant Programs
Grantees have been selected for the Colorado and Idaho Business Builder Grant Programs, part of a $6.75 million USDA Regional Food Business Center initiative supporting small- and mid-sized food and farm businesses through 2027. In Colorado, $300,962 was awarded to 32 businesses focused on strengthening local food systems. Idaho’s program granted $207,467 to 17 businesses, prioritizing collaborative efforts to build resilient supply chains. These grants aim to boost business viability, market access, and regional food security.
“Together, all of the businesses that have been and will be selected for Business Builder grants represent a valuable and timely investment in our region’s food systems,” said Lauren Gwin, who leads the Center’s Business Builder Program. “We are excited to support and track their development during their projects and into the future.”
| | Successful WA Meat Up Summit Held in Moses Lake, WA | | |
On Saturday, April 5, representatives from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center's (NWRM RFBC) Washington team supported the 2025 WA Meat Up Summit in Moses Lake, Washington. The event drew about 25 producers and processors from around the state for a day of learning and networking. Participants represented diverse livestock interests, business types, and operational sizes.
Sarah Lemon, Local Meat Marketing & Capacity Specialist at WSDA Regional Markets and WA representative on the NWRM RFBC Building Meat Supply Chain Capacity theme team, co-presented a session on accessing different market channels, using business goals to select the best market options for each business, and understanding and meeting the expectations of each market. The event was highly interactive and the group left connected to external resources and to other producers and processors.
The WA Meat Up team offers quarterly webinars to address timely topics in the meat producing and processing industry. Stay in the loop by keeping an eye on the Center event page and the WA Meat Up website!
| | | Inaugural Colorado Grain Summit in Salida, Colorado | | |
The Colorado Grain Chain and the Northwest & Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center partnered to produce the inaugural Colorado Grain Summit in Salida, Colorado.
This one-day gathering of over 160 attendees featured farmers, millers, bakers, brewers, maltsters, distillers, and buyers interested in expanding local and regional markets for grain and grain products. The Summit included panel discussions about building partnerships along the grain supply chain, enhancing direct and intermediated marketing, and creating new grain-based relationships in Colorado and beyond.
A special feature of the Summit was a focus on The Rye Resurgence Project which promotes the production and consumption of rye – a heritage grain and winter cover crop that uses less water, improves soil health, and has a complex flavor profile for a variety of uses. Summit participants were able to taste-test four rye varieties grown at different locations in Colorado, and even take home some rye flour!
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A Winter of Learning: Wyoming's Market Course a Success!
From December 2024 through March 2025, over 65 Wyoming farm and food businesses and food system support organizations learned new skills for their start-ups or to scale existing operations in the Wyoming team's Market Course. There were six virtual 2-hour sessions - each offered twice to accommodate participants' schedules.
The cohort included ranchers who raised cattle and sheep. The small livestock were not left out, with rabbit and poultry producers represented. Dairy producers of both cow and goat milk, and Grade A and raw dairy products, also joined. Fresh produce included vegetables, microgreens and asparagus growers. Additionally, food makers of value-added food products and agritourism operators participated. The chat was lively, with producers from the far flung corners of the Cowboy State connecting for further offline conversations about everything from Icelandic sheep to insurance options for small-scale direct-to-consumer producers.
The Wyoming Small Business Development Center covered business planning, licensing, taxes and liability insurance. Melissa Hemken, Wyoming co-lead for the USDA Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center, taught storytelling marketing and branding. She followed it up with a session on labeling, packaging and pricing of food products, which leans on a business's marketing strategy and branding flavor. The Wyoming Department of Agriculture's Consumer Health Department led the cohort through food safety and resources for value-added food products. Photographer and web designer Brad Christiansen showcased low-tech to affordable high-tech techniques for product photography alongside tips for choosing and building a website that has the right fit for the business.
The Market Course was as prerequisite for eligibility to apply for the Wyoming Business Builder grant program. Of the 65 participants, 27 chose to submit grant requests for projects that will help them move their farm and food businesses forward.
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PBS Special on Food Freedom Markets Nominated for EMMY!
The Wyoming PBS special on Wyoming's food freedom markets has been nominated for a News & Documentary EMMY from the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences! Stay tuned - EMMY awards will be announced in June 2025.
The Our Wyoming PBS special was released in November 2024 and explores how the Wyoming Food Freedom Act has transformed rural food access, focusing on Fremont County's success stories: the Fremont Local Market in Riverton and Lander's Meadowlark Market & Kitchen. Learn how these grassroots, nonprofit-managed marketplaces connect local farmers, ranchers, and food artisans directly with their communities. See how these markets are boosting rural economies by creating jobs, supporting agricultural entrepreneurs, and expanding access to fresh, locally-grown produce, meats, dairy products, and baked goods.
Take an inside look at how Wyoming's food freedom markets are revolutionizing local food distribution, strengthening community ties, and promoting sustainable food systems across the Cowboy State. You can watch it on this YouTube link.
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Stay Up to Date on RFBCs Nationwide
Centers & Center Partners can now subscribe to the Regional Food Business Center Digest directly. Stay updated on nationwide RFBC news by subscribing here.
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Learn As You Go Grant Writing Course
The Right Size Investment & Infrastructure Team, in partnership with Stepwell Consulting, have released a new web-based, grant writing course.
This comprehensive new course will be useful to both individuals and organizations. It is delivered in a video format, and includes downloadable tools and templates for building work plans, and budgets. It is free for anyone and everyone to use!
About the course: This eight-part course equips you with tested strategies to craft a competitive grant application. We’ll demystify federal grant jargon, ensure you’re prepped for success, and guide you through the SAM.gov registration. From crafting workable budgets and work plans to a stress-free submission, we’ll walk you through every step. Familiarize yourself and your team with the art of grant writing and secure the USDA funding you need to grow your business.
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USDA Amends the Request for Applications and Extends Application Deadline for the Bison Production and Marketing Grant Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has amended the Request for Applications (RFA) and extended the deadline for the Bison Production and Marketing Grant Program (BPMGP) to April 22, 2025. Amendments to the RFA primarily clarify instructions for applicants, particularly to emphasize that the program is open to applicants who propose a plan and demonstrate capacity to manage a competitive subaward program under this opportunity.
On Jan. 16, 2025, USDA announced up to $2 million in grant funding available to strengthen and enhance the production and marketing of bison and bison products in the United States through business and resource development, and the advancement of innovative approaches to solving long-term needs in the bison sector.
This program’s goal is to provide practical solutions for challenges in the bison industry while focusing on the measurable benefits for bison producers, encouraging partnerships among bison industry organizations, and reducing duplication of efforts among participating organizations.
Applications must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. ET on April 22, 2025. An updated RFA for the program is available on the program on the BPMGP webpage.
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Emergency Resilience Grant
The American Farmland Trust (AFT) Brighter Future Fund’s Emergency Resilience Grant was formed through generous support from donors and members seeking to offset financial disruptions farmers and ranchers are experiencing due to natural disasters (such as flooding, wildfires, or avian flu), the loss or delay of funding due to the government funding freeze, or a loss of markets.
Funding will be prioritized for small to mid-size farms that have previously faced challenges accessing traditional funding opportunities, enhancing financial resilience, supporting business technical assistance, investing in business building, and/or fostering soil health and environmentally beneficial agricultural practices.
Funding for this program is limited, and applications are competitive. Applications will be accepted from 8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on April 16th until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on April 26th. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received, and awards will be made until funding is exhausted.
| | | | Food Business Consultant Training | The Right Size Investment & Infrastructure Team has partnered with the Food Finance Institute to offer Level 1 & 2 Consultant Training to 20 consultants in our six-state region in April and May, 2025. This customized training will prepare consultants to better serve our region's value-added processing, aggregation, and distribution businesses. | | | |
In this special deep-dive episode of The Sorghum State Podcast, hosts Maddy Meier and Adam York explore the growing opportunities for U.S. sorghum in India with Reece Cannady, U.S. Grains Council Regional Director for South Asia.
The conversation covers:
- India’s ethanol blending mandate and its impact on grain supply
- The market potential for U.S. sorghum—how big is 5 million metric tonnes?
- How the U.S. Grains Council, Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, and industry partners are building relationships to expand exports
- Key takeaways from last fall’s Indian trade delegation visit to Kansas
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Future goals for U.S. sorghum in India and what they mean for American producers
Tune in to part one here and to part two here.
| | | Help Us Reach Shared Kitchen Operators – Survey Now Live! | |
The 2025 Shared Kitchen Operator Survey is now live, and we’d love your help spreading the word!
This survey will generate critical insights into the economic, social, and operational impact of shared-use kitchens, incubators, and community kitchens. The data collected will be used to inform policy, attract funding, and shape the industry's future—but only if we hear from enough voices.
Here’s how you can help:
- Forward the survey to shared kitchen operators or food system leaders in your network
- Share our pre-made graphic on social
- Add the Call to Action to your network newsletter
We’re looking for responses from:
- Current shared kitchen operators, managers, or incubator leads
- Folks planning to open a shared-use kitchen in 2025
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Copy and Share:
Whether you send a quick email, post on social media, or pass it along in a newsletter, your outreach helps us ensure the shared kitchen sector is seen, supported, and resourced.
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Take the 2025 National Food Hub Survey
The Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, in partnership with the University of Michigan Program Evaluation Group is excited to launch the 2025 National Food Hub Survey! This is the sixth national survey to seek data on the economic growth, activities, opportunities and challenges of food hubs and similar businesses across the United States. You don’t have to call yourself a food hub to participate. If your business or organization aggregates food products from multiple producers and distributes them locally/regionally, we want to hear from you!
Take the survey here.
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Food Systems Mapping Webinar
April 22, 2025
1pm-2pm MT
Live via Zoom
We’re rolling out a brand-new mapping platform as part of the growing resources available through the USDA Northwest & Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center!
This powerful tool is designed to help farms, ranches, food businesses, and communities gain deeper insights into their markets and local food systems.
- Discover how you can use it to better understand your community and business landscape.
- See real examples of how it works in action.
- Share your feedback to help us make it even more valuable for you!
Join us and explore how this mapping platform can support your food systems work! Registration is required.
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Learning Series: Visualizing Food Systems Data
April 23, 2025
Noon-1pm MT
Live via Zoom
With the increasing reliance on data for decision making, data visualization can be a useful tool to simplify complex information and share insights in a way that can be easily understood by many audiences.
This edition of the RFBC Learning Series, Visualizing Food Systems Data, will focus on the Food and Agriculture Mapper and Explorer (FAME) and Data Warehouse. Presenters will highlight recent updates, explore new capabilities, and walk through some specific use cases to illustrate practical uses of these tools for Regional Food Business Centers.
Registration is required.
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NMPAN Guide to Wholesaling Meat: Working with Distributors
April 25, 2025
10am-11am MT
Live via Zoom
Kathryn Quanbeck (formerly of NMPAN, currently with Stemple Creek Ranch) will be joined by Tom Richards of Richards Regenerative, to share their individual experiences on:
- how to know if distributed wholesale is right for you
- sharing a distributor’s expectations of quality assurance, fulfillment accuracy, lead times
- setting your expectations regarding cost of distribution
- challenges and benefits of distributed wholesale
Registration is required.
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Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop
April 29, 2025
8am-4pm pm MT
Ignacio, CO
Hosted by The Food Corridor and sponsored by the NW and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center. We can’t wait to meet you! The workshop group will dive into shared kitchen planning, collaboration with other kitchen operators, and deep work to move your kitchen project forward, whether you’re planning, developing, or launching a new kitchen. You’ll leave with new connections, ideas, and action plans to get to your next step.
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Supply Chain Program Webinar for Food Safety Modernization Act
May 2, 2025
10am-Noon MT
Live via Zoom
This virtual webinar will cover a brief overview of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Human Foods (PCHF) and FSMA Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) rules. There will be a focus on the supply chain preventive controls for PCHF and the FSVP rules and regulations. The webinar will also cover the documentation requirements with supply chain preventive controls. We will summarize the best practices for supplier management for your Food Safety Plan.
This training helps small- to medium-sized food processors learn more about the supply chain requirements. Small- and medium-sized businesses are those, including any affiliates and subsidiaries, employing fewer than 500 full-time equivalent employees.
Registration is required.
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Virtual Internal Auditing- Food Safety
May 5, 2025
10am-4pm MT
Live via Zoom
This virtual workshop will help you understand how a comprehensive audit system is fundamental to a company’s food safety and product quality. An audit provides confirmation that systems and procedures are operating effectively and identifies areas that require improvement. This one-day virtual Internal Auditor Course will teach food companies how to conduct internal audits in their facilities against GFSI standards.
Registration is required.
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Virtual Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop - Colorado
May 6-7, 2025
9am-1pm pm MT
Live via Zoom
Thanks to funding from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center, The Food Corridor, in partnership with Colorado State University, is excited to bring a virtual Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop to the Colorado shared kitchen community, at no cost for attendees!
Our Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop is a comprehensive educational program designed to provide individuals, community leaders, and organizations with essential knowledge and resources to explore the world of shared kitchens. This workshop is tailored for those interested in understanding, planning, and potentially launching shared-use kitchens in their communities.
Who Should Attend?
- Entrepreneurs planning to start a shared kitchen.
- Community organizations and leaders considering shared kitchen projects.
- Current operators looking to strengthen their business model.
- Anyone passionate about fostering culinary innovation in their community.
Please reach out to tyler@thefoodcorridor.com if you have any questions, and we hope to see you on May 6th and 7th!
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Virtual Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop - Washington
May 12-13, 2025
9am-1pm pm MT
Live via Zoom
Thanks to funding from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center, The Food Corridor, in partnership with the Washington State Department of Agriculture, is excited to bring a virtual Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop to the Washington shared kitchen community, at no cost for attendees!
Our Shared Kitchen 101 Workshop is a comprehensive educational program designed to provide individuals, community leaders, and organizations with essential knowledge and resources to explore the world of shared kitchens. This workshop is tailored for those interested in understanding, planning, launching shared-use kitchens in their communities, or established kitchens looking to scale up or improve shared kitchen operations.
Who Should Attend?
- Entrepreneurs planning to start a shared kitchen.
- Operators looking to strengthen their model.
- Community organizations and leaders considering shared kitchen projects.
- Anyone passionate about fostering culinary innovation in their community.
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OSU Food Innovation Center: Grains and Baking Science Workshop
May 14-15, 2025
Portland, OR
Join food scientists at Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center and the Wheat Marketing Center for the 2nd annual Grains and Baking Science Workshop designed for enthusiastic hobbyists, home bakers, and professionals seeking a deeper scientific understanding of grains, flour, and baking.
The bulk of the course will be dedicated to hands-on baking using various types of grains and flour to evaluate their impact on hydration, appearance, texture, and flavor. We will cover baking science & cereal chemistry 101 for bakers, explore how different flours behave within the same recipe, explore different types of preferments, and practice baking by feel, coupled with formulating with baker’s percentages.
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Farm to Loading Dock Landscape Assessement
May 16, 2025
12pm - 1:15pm MT
Live via Zoom
Please join us for an informative webinar about a research project that explored the partnerships, training, and resources needed to move food from Colorado’s agricultural producers to wholesale institutional markets. This research project which culminated in the The Farm to Loading Landscape Assessment has been referenced in federal and state grant opportunities, informed statewide data collection strategies, and coalesced support for statewide coordination around training and technical assistance among other things.
This webinar will explain the why, the how, the process of completing this research, along with how it is being utilized within Colorado and where it could inform strategies in other states looking to support the process of making farm to institution the easy choice. The discussion will also focus on various policy solutions currently being implemented or considered to address pain points, increase resource allocation, and strengthen and sustain the Colorado local food economy.
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Partners and Collaborators: |
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Center Leads: Colorado State University, Oregon State University
Regional/multi-state: Tahoma Peak Solutions, Network of Incubators and Community Kitchens (The Nick), Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Luna Bird, The Food Corridor
Colorado: Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado State University
Oregon: Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon State University Food Innovation Center, Oregon Community Food Systems Network, Oregon Food Hub Network
Idaho: University of Idaho, Idaho Department of Agriculture, FARE Idaho, Sun Valley Institute, Arrowleaf Consulting Group
Montana: Montana Department of Agriculture, Montana State University
Washington: Washington State University, Washington State Department of Agriculture
Wyoming: University of Wyoming, Central Wyoming College
USDA: Ag Marketing Service Collaborators and NW-Rocky Mountain Regional Coordinator
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In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident.
Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.) should contact the State or local Agency that administers the program or contact USDA through the Telecommunications Relay Service at 711 (voice and TTY). Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.
To file a program discrimination complaint, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, AD-3027, found online at How to File a Program Discrimination Complaint and at any USDA office or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Mail Stop 9410, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: program.intake@usda.gov.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
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