Cooperative Development Grant Projects

These projects were funded through the Cooperative Development Grant Program.

2025 Grant Recipients

Cooperative Name	Location	Grant Award	Project Summary
APENI Farmers Cooperative	Minneapolis	$10,000	APENI Farmers Cooperative seeks funding to explore the production, processing and marketing of ugu, bitterleaf, waterleaf and rice. They will also utilize funding to develop and review their cooperative governing documents.
Many Nations Producers Cooperative	Onamia	$17,500	Many Nations Producer Cooperative will utilize funding to grow the organizational capacity and membership of the co-op and to assess the feasibility to grow markets for Minnesota-grown meat goats.

2024 Grant Recipients

Cooperative Name	Location	Grant Award	Project Summary
Alliance of Small Regenerative Farms	St. Paul	$19,500	This project proposes the support of the Alliance of Small Regenerative Farms and its members through the hiring of a part-time staff member to assist with administrative and operational management. This will remove the barriers felt by many of our immigrant, minority, and emerging farmers with support to increase their small-scale farming operations into more profitable and sustainable operations.
Farm and Forest Growers Cooperative	Two Harbors	$50,000	The Farm and Forest Growers Cooperative is working to produce climate smart tree seedlings for reforestation efforts as part of a statewide, multi-stakeholder project to assist our forests and woodlands to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. Their project will focus on developing production knowledge, marketing, branding, winter storage practices, internal accounting systems and member support.
Headwaters Beef Cooperative Inc.	Pine River	$50,000	Headwaters Beef Cooperative is a farmer-owned business created to stabilize markets for beef animals produced in central Minnesota. This project is an applied feasibility study to test local processing capacity and market opportunities for locally grown beef in both grocery and foodservice markets. The results of the study will inform decisions about products to be offered, and pricing and marketing strategies that the co-op might pursue.
Indigenous Hemp & Cannabis Farmer's Cooperative	Ponsford	$50,000	The Indigenous Hemp and Cannabis Farmers Cooperative supports the development of seeds, Indigenous standards, cultivation, value-added processing, appropriate technologies, and fair-trade markets for fiber hemp. With their grant funding and through a comprehensive initiative, the cooperative aims to finalize its legal and administrative structure, undertake long-term business planning for value-added production, and recruit and train new cooperative members.
Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative	Madison	$20,000	The Perennial Promise Growers is a new co-op commercializing Kernza. With this funding, the co-op will gain administrative capacity, consultant support for accounting and governance, and strategic development of value-added markets for conventional Kernza.
Summer Kitchen Cooperative	North Branch	$27,930	The Summer Kitchen Cooperative was founded to provide an avenue for emerging farmers to offer their products to consumers through existing and proven marketing channels, serving members who are underrepresented in farming. With this funding, they will hire their first staff member to help emerging small farmers find markets for their agricultural products so that they can continue to grow their farming business.