OSU/ODA to show farmers how to get value-added grants

CORVALLIS – On Thursday (Sept. 25), agricultural producers throughout Oregon will have a chance to learn how to get federal money for adding value to their products.

The Food Innovation Center in Portland, operated by Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, will present a workshop at several locations in the state to help agricultural producers develop proposals for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Value-Added Producer Grant program.

The VAPG program, administered by the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Services, has $27.7 million available for disbursement across the United States.

The grant program is intended to help independent agricultural producers, agricultural producer groups, farmer or rancher cooperatives and majority-controlled producer-based business ventures enter into value-added activities. Proposals are due to the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service office in Redmond on Oct. 20, 2003.

The free workshop will be held live from 2:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. at the Food Innovation Center, 1207 N.W. Naito Parkway, in downtown Portland, near the Broadway Bridge and Union Station, and across the street from Albers Mill.

Agricultural producers and others interested in submitting a grant proposal to the USDA also will be able to participate by satellite at:

• OSU's Southern Oregon Research & Extension Center, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point.
  
• OSU's Cascades Campus, 2600 N.W. College Way, Bend, Cascades Hall, Room 107.
  
• OSU's Malheur County Extension Office, 710 SW 5th Avenue, Ontario (3:30 pm MDT).
  
• OSU's Umatilla County Extension Office, 721 SE 3rd St, Suite 3, Pendleton.
  

In addition, the workshop will be available in real time on the Internet via streaming video. Instructions on how to view the streaming video are at http://fic.oregonstate.edu/osu/VAPG. Organizers suggest visiting the Web site by 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25.

For information contact Aaron Johnson, food business strategies program leader at the Food Innovation Center, at 503-872-6680, or visit http://fic.oregonstate.edu/osu/VAPG.