MONTEVIDEO, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) has been awarded a $305,000 Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant by the USDA to support building a resilient and community-led local food system in west central Minnesota.

The new funding will be used to:

• Increase local farmer income through sales to local wholesale buyers, including schools and food access programs.
• Increase market access for producers by educating wholesale buyers and connecting them with local producers.
• Increase local food access through local foods sales in schools, food access programs and food businesses.
• Expand and strengthen private-public partnerships around local foods in west central Minnesota by adding new partners to the Minnesota Valley Local Foods Network.

“The core of our mission is soil health, more farmers on the land and building strong rural communities, and local foods are such a big part of that,” said Scott DeMuth, a regional foods organizer for LSP. “The impact of a grant like this isn’t just purchasing food from local farmers. The economic impact for every dollar spent is another $1.60 that becomes wealth that is retained locally, instead of going into the hands of large corporations.”

The project funded by the LFPP grant focuses on efforts in five counties in west central Minnesota: Chippewa, Big Stone, Swift, Lac qui Parle and Yellow Medicine. In addition to farms and food businesses that grow, process and sell food, LSP will build off the community foods work happening in the towns of Appleton, Granite Falls, Madison and Montevideo. The initiative aims not only to meet the immediate needs of the local community, but also to develop a model that could serve as a blueprint for similar rural areas, maximizing both local economic benefits and food accessibility.

On the supply side, LSP will help specialty crop producers access wholesale markets through training and support in marketing, food safety and financial planning. The grant will provide funds to connect farmers to a broader network of buyers, including through school and food access programs and via in-person matchmaking events. It will also help develop relationships with partners such as Countryside Public Health, University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission, the Real Food Hub and Madison Mercantile.

“Partnering with the Land Stewardship Project strengthens Toad Hill Farm’s efforts to expand availability of local foods through our farm business,” said Davis Bonk of Toad Hill Farm in rural Chippewa County. “We are excited about being a part of this project and increasing aggregation, distribution and sales of locally produced specialty crops.”

On the demand side, LSP will develop new markets for producers by engaging schools and food access programs (such as food shelves and elder meal programs), host producer-buyer matchmaking events, develop marketing tools for farmers and help bring aggregator partners and other buyers onto the Open Food Network sales platform.

“The LFPP grant made through the Land Stewardship Project is the bridge we need to make local food production and distribution a viable opportunity for our region,” said Kris Shelstad, executive director of Madison Mercantile, one of LSP’s partners in the project. “We are excited to be a part of creating a model in west central Minnesota that can be replicated across the state and country.”

-30-

The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing healthy communities in the food and farming system. LSP has offices in the Minnesota communities of Montevideo, Lewiston and South Minneapolis. More information is at landstewardshipproject.org.

Funding for the Local Food Promotion Program was made possible by a grant/cooperative agreement from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA. The USDA Local Foods Promotion Program is implemented under the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), a program authorized by subtitle A of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. LFPP funds projects that develop, coordinate, and expand local and regional food business enterprises that engage as intermediaries in indirect producer to consumer marketing to help increase access to and availability of locally and regionally produced agricultural products. More information is at ams.usda.gov/services/grants/lfpp.