Start planning your project for the next grant round, opening Summer/Fall 2025. 
 

• More details on the next grant round will be posted here in April 2025.
• Projects must support WA grown, caught, or raised foods through 
  • post-harvest handling
  • aggregation
  • processing
  • storage/distribution
  • retail marketplaces
• Grant applicant workshops and technical assistance wil be offered 

In the Spring 2024 round, WSDA anticipates awarding approximately $2 million in grants. The next application round is anticipated in the summer/fall of 2025.

The Spring 2024 grant round has one project category:

There is no requirement for matching funds.
 
This is a reimbursement style grant.  This means grant recipients will NOT receive up-front payment. Grant recipients will need to make purchases and payments with their own funds first and then submit receipts for those expenses to WSDA. WSDA will then make payment to the grantee for expenses that are part of the approved project budget. WSDA is not authorized under Washington State Law to pay state funds in advance of expenditures.  
 

 
Allowable Costs

• Facility improvements must comply with all applicable license and permit requirements by the state, county, or other local jurisdiction.
• No self-dealing in contracting or purchasing of goods and services is allowed.
• Applicants who rent their facilities must ensure approval for the project from the facility owner.

• Food, ingredient, or livestock purchases
• “Pre-harvest” expenses (for example, green houses, tractors, row covers, irrigation equipment, soil amendments, seed, feed, or other agricultural inputs).
• On-going operating costs that do not directly support completion of the proposed grant project.

​See allowable cost details in the Grant Guidelines linked below.

Timeline

• An owner-operated farm or ranch in Washington with less than $1 million in annual gross cash farm income in 2022, that sells some portion of their products in Washington state.
  • An owner-operated farm is one in which the majority of the business is owned by the person/s involved in the day to day on-farm operation, including co-operatively owned and operated farms or ranches

• A non-farm food business with less than $5 million dollars in annual revenue in 2022, and fewer than 200 employees, whose primary function is to gather, process, manufacture, move, store, or sell foods grown, caught, or raised in Washington.
  • Revenue and employee count must include parent company and subsidiaries and across all geographies where the company operates.
  • Employee count is the average number of people employed for each pay period over the business’s latest 24 calendar months. Any person on the payroll must be included as one employee, regardless of hours worked or temporary status.

• A non-profit, tribal, or local government entity that is directly enabling small and midsize Washington farms, ranches, and food businesses to access or improve aggregation, processing, distribution of their products in Washington, or otherwise directly enabling their access to markets within Washington. This grant may not be used for sub-awards or pass-through funding.

This is a competitive grant. Applications will be evaluated and scored based on alignment with the grant purpose, to support local food supply chains and market access for farms, ranches, food processors, and food distributors.  Project evaluation categories include:

• Regional Food System Impact
• Achievability
• Reasonable Proposed Budget and Benefits

• Applicants who have received less than $75,000 in awards from WSDA Regional Markets grants in the past three (3) years.
• Small farms, ranches, and food businesses

 
See Evaluation Criteria details in the Grant Guidelines linked below.

STEP 1:  Read the Grant Guidelines

• Link to Grant Guidelines in English

• Link to Grant Guidelines in Spanish

STEP 2:  Fill out the Application in the Online Grant Portal        

(click to expand each section)