Local Catch Network helps small-scale fisheries seek USDA funding
In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced $92.2 million in competitive grant funding through the 2018 Farm Bill’s Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), as part of a USDA initiative to assist food producers affected by the pandemic. Funding included $77 million for the Farmers Market Promotion Program and Local Food Promotion Program. Both grant programs are open to seafood businesses, tribes, NGOs and fishing associations that are involved in local, regional and direct seafood marketing and distribution.
To encourage a diverse applicant pool, USDA partnered with institutions around the country, including a team at UMaine, to provide technical assistance for those seeking funds in rural, BIPOC and other underserved communities.
The UMaine team included Joshua Stoll and Jordan Richardson from the Local Catch Network (LCN), an organization that promotes community-supported fisheries across the United States. Stoll is assistant professor of marine policy at UMaine and a Mitchell Center faculty fellow, as well as co-founder of LCN. Richardson is the LCN coordinator at UMaine.
The team also included Bridie McGreavy, associate professor of communication and journalism at UMaine and a Mitchell Center faculty fellow, and Anthony Sutton, who earned a Ph.D at UMaine and is currently community food facilitator with the Maine Shellfish Learning Network.
The six-week effort recently wrapped up, with an estimated 150 hours invested by the UMaine team. They reached more than 36,000 people through a listserv, newsletter, and op-ed in National Fisherman. The team hosted an information session for prospective applicants that drew 147 people as well as a targeted grant-writing workshop led by a former USDA staff member with more than 25 years of experience. They also offered direct one-on-one technical assistance to 35 fishing businesses and organizations.
Stoll and Richardson note in their op-ed, “This injection of funding represents a major opportunity to strengthen the resilience of our nation’s food system and put domestic seafood on our country’s menu in a meaningful way.”
Learn more about Stoll’s work in community-supported fisheries, including LCN, in a recent feature story on our website.