According to the BBC Trusted Source How coffee became an unstoppable force Coffee was once a little-known delicacy used to aid religious rituals – now we drink more than two billion cups a day. www.bbc.com , coffee has become an unstoppable force, and more than 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed daily across the globe. When the pandemic struck, most businesses were impacted, including coffee roasters. There, however, seems to be a ray of hope as US-based coffee farmers & coffee roasters, and other agricultural-product-to-food chain small businesses could qualify for a new pandemic relief grant that’s mostly linked to worker safety.
These grants by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Pandemic Response and Safety program will award food-related businesses and farmers that took protective measures for thor workers during the pandemic a total of $60 million. This money is specifically reserved for non-profits & small businesses in the food production & agricultural industries, and each may get about $15000 up to $20,000.
Grant applications commenced on 6th October, and this will continue until 22nd November 2021.
This will be the first round of funding and is aimed at businesses that may not have received other federal relief grants and packages but incurred business expenses related to worker safety between 27th January 2020 and 31st December 2021. According to the PRS Trusted Source Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program - usda The Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program provides grants to specialty crop producers and processors, other select producers, meat and other processors, distributors, and farmers markets to respond to coronavirus, including for measures to protect workers against novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID–19). usda-prs.grantsolutions.gov program page, some of these expenses include marketing expenses such as those related to taking the business online, fitting the business facilities with new equipment such as physical barriers, worker transportation, housing & medical expenses (testing, vaccination & treatment), goods delivery and providing protective equipment.
In a bid to help producers of specialty crops, this program will be offered to coffee roasters and coffee adjacent food businesses such as those involved in cold storage, production, transportation, and warehousing. It’s, however, not available to food and beverage retailers such as coffee shops and cafes. You can check for the eligible business types on the USDA Trusted Source Eligibility Info - usda This first round of Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program funding is open to certain small producers, food processors and distributors, and farmers markets. usda-prs.grantsolutions.gov website. The USDA also highlighted that they would review all applications submitted within the specified period without any bias or giving priority to those that were submitted early.
