PITTSBURG, KS – Local United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) grant recipients received unwelcome news last week. Emails informed a number of grant recipients that the grant funding they had already been awarded was frozen.
“If we had known in January this might have happened, we could have planned for it,” Heather Horton, Pittsburg Bread Company co-owner, said. “Put it on pause, that’s fine, but let us know ahead of time. We’re in a contract. We signed a contract. We are obligated to withhold that contract, so are they.”
In September, five area businesses, Pittsburg Bread Company, Misty Morning Farms, Kitchen of C and C, McCune Farm to Market and Blackberry Moon Produce received word that their applications for the USDA’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program grants were approved.
In order to be approved for this grant, each applicant was required to give detailed plans for how the money would be used along with price estimates on equipment and how it aligns with the perimeters of the program.
The program is meant to strengthen the middle food supply chain by helping businesses or organizations process, manufacture, store, transport, wholesale or distribute regionally produced food products. This in turn helps make fresh, healthy foods more accessible to the public and helps local farmers.
Last week, RFSI grant recipients received an email from the KDA stating President Trump has ordered funding freezes including the USDA’s RFSI program. The USDA distributes the funds to the KDA, which then disperses the money to the grant recipients that specifically live in Kansas.
The email also informed the recipients that any purchases made after Jan. 19 that were earmarked for the program would not be reimbursed.
According to the email, this also means that the KDA reserves the right to recoup funds from any recipients who received reimbursements after Jan. 19.
“We understand the very difficult position this decision puts you in and the very real impact that it will have to your operations,” the email stated. “However, until President Trump’s order is rescinded, or his guidance is revised, we are unable to continue with this important program.
“Our hope is that this will be a temporary pause, but we will continue to monitor developments at the federal level and will share information with you as soon as it becomes available.”
Pittsburg Bread Company, under TOAST LLC, owned by Heather and Roger Horton, was awarded more than $94,000 from the RFSI grant to purchase equipment and expand its Spread the Loaf campaign.
The campaign allows customers and community members to purchase loaves of bread made by Roger and once a month, the loaves are donated to either Wesley House or the Girard Food Pantry. Last year, the Pittsburg Bread Company donated 1,216 loaves. Additional equipment would allow Roger to quadruple production and donate to more food pantries in the area.
In addition to adding to their Spread the Loaf campaign, the duo was planning to purchase a mill and purchase wheat from Kansas farmers to create flour. They planned to use the flour to make bread for the campaign and for the restaurant along with selling flour, bread, cornmeal and jams at local farmers’ markets.
The Hortons also planned to use a portion of the funds to create an incubator kitchen in the back of the bakery. The incubator kitchen is a fully licensed kitchen, that new entrepreneurs can use to test their businesses.
Because the equipment would allow them to quadruple their Spread the Loaf bread production, Roger was also planning to hire a whole breadmaking crew, thus creating more jobs.
To date, the Hortons have put $58,000 of the allotted grant into their projects by purchasing necessary equipment. They have been reimbursed for $36,000 of it, but the KDA may request they repay that money. For a small business, this would be a devastating blow.
They had just ordered a $22,000 piece when they received the email last Wednesday. Not knowing what the outcome of the federal freeze would be, they contacted the seller and cancelled the order. The order currently has a pending status and they are unsure if they will get a refund or not.
For each piece of equipment ordered, the Hortons have to send receipts to be reimbursed the money.
The Hortons pointed out that every item they bought, they managed to purchase under the projected amount, which means their entire grant will come in under their projected budget, saving taxpayer money. Roger said at their continued rate they would potentially be $15,000 to $20,000 under budget and still get all the equipment they need.
“We are trying to be good stewards of this grant because we know where it comes from,” Roger said. “We’re not taking it for granted.”
Roger pointed out that he did not apply for this grant to boost their business. The business is profitable and survived for five years even through the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“We did not apply for this grant to make our business thrive,” Roger said. “The grant was just an opportunity to expand our Spread the Loaf program. It is going to help our business. We’re not trying to gaslight anyone and say it wouldn’t help our business with this equipment. But had we known we were going to have this issue, we might not have applied for it.”
“It has been more frustrating and stressful than anything else,” Heather said.
Misty Morning Farms Owner Misty Phillips, who was awarded $138,490 said she is trying to stay positive and hopes this grant freeze will work itself out.
The Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program awarded more than $5.6 million to 49 food and farm businesses in Kansas. Pittsburg Bread Company was one of five in the area to receive grant money. Blackberry Moon Produce in Columbus was awarded $96,763, and the Kitchen of C and C in Fort Scott was given $385,529. Schenker Family Farms LLC in McCune received $512,000, and Misty Morning Farms was awarded $138,490. This is a one-time grant.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews
