Today, Americans eat from one of the safest food supplies in the world.
Shared commercial kitchens (also commonly referred to as shared-use, community, or incubator kitchens) rent space to food
In 2022, the Minnesota Legislature provided funding to the MDA through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) for grants to organizations in Minnesota to develop enterprises, supply chains, and markets for continuous living cover (CLC) crops and cropping systems in the early stage of commercial development. This includes, but not limited to, regenerative poultry silvopasture systems, Kernza® perennial grain, winter camelina, and elderberry.
The Request for Proposals for this one-time competitive grant opportunity opened Monday, March 13, 2023 and closed April 23, 2023. A summary of selected projects is included in the table below.
| Organization Name | Project Summary | Award Total |
|---|---|---|
| Dawson Drug & Gifts | Purchase a freeze dryer to expand the market of continuous living cover crops, primarily fruit. | $50,000 |
| Midwest Elderberry Cooperative | Design, build, and test a continuous flow prototype elderberry destemmer that can be linked to a wash, dry, and freeze process conveyor line. | $48,800 |
| Regenerative Agriculture Alliance | Purchase a mechanical harvester and two de-husking units for two hazelnut grower networks in Minnesota to hasten ongoing development of supply chains. | $50,000 |
| Nine Hazels Farm | Improve greenhouse operation to produce hybrid hazelnut seedling plugs for sale. | $29,657 |
| Perennial Pantry | Build team capacity and develop standard operating procedures to operationalize a processing plant dedicated to the production of CLC products. | $50,000 |
| Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative | Develop capacities to and systems required to market Kernza. | $50,000 |
Unused funds may be included in a second RFP in June 2024.
LCCMR Approved Project Work Plan
Funding for the program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
