WASHINGTON – Minkus Family Farms in New Hampton secured a $249,000 federal grant from the USDA’s Value Added Producer Program to promote local marketing to increase sales margins for the farm’s onion crop.
The farm will provide half of the money to implement marketing improvements to promote their new local-labeled products and contract with large regional food retailers.
Three new employees will also be hired to implement the program.
“People have been eating local for a thousand years before all the advancements in transportation,” said Minkus Farms’ Director of Operations Dylan Dembeck. “It makes sense to source locally and not burn all the extra fuel to ship produce across the country when it is available from a local farm.”
The USDA’s funding program is meant to help agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and/or marketing of new products.
United Hospice to hold 2024 Walk to Remember
May 9, 2024
