Securing Local Food Systems Grant Recipients

Congratulations on being awarded a Securing Local Food Systems grant! This grant program was created to support Kansas meat processing facilities, food processors, food banks, local direct-to-consumer producers and retail outlets to increase capacity of Kansas’ local food systems. For more information about the grant program (including a list of all grant awardees), click here. 

If you have questions about your grant, KDA Securing Local Food Systems team members are ready to help answer those questions. Email us at SecuringLocalFoods@ks.gov or call us at 785-564-6700. We’re also working with a project management firm who is helping to coordinate the grant program. You may have already received a call from a member of the project management team or the KDA team to check on the status of your project.

You have all been assigned a KDA Case Manager who will help guide you through the process of tracking your progress to help ensure the success of the project which is being funded by your Securing Local Food Systems grant. You can expect regular contact from that Case Manager, and should expect to share information about your progress on a weekly basis.

Reporting

What reporting template should be used? The reporting template has been updated, and it can be found here: REPORTING TEMPLATE. If you have already submitted reports on the previous template, that is fine — you do not need to re-submit those reports. 

Please note that this submission should be a cumulative report, showing all expenditures incurred since March 1, 2020.

How should reports be submitted? The state of Kansas has created an online portal to use for submitting grant reporting documents. Please use this link when you submit your Grant Report:
Report Submission Portal

What other documentation is required? Please note that Section VII: Record Retention in the grant agreement requires that records (receipts or other official documentation of expenses) be retained. These may not be requested in the reporting process, but would be critical in the event the grant is audited in the future. 

KDA will send reminders of your monthly reporting obligations, but it is solely your responsibility to ensure that you provide required reports in a timely manner. As we receive additional guidance from the federal government on reporting, we will be certain to notify you. Funds not documented as having been spent on eligible expenses will be subject to return to the State Office of Recovery.

Eligible Expenses

Grant funds must be used for capacity-related improvements. 

Improvements made since March 1, 2020 are eligible, as are new improvements. The project supported by the grant funds must be in use by December 30, 2020. 

Eligibe Expenses include:

  • Capital improvements to expand capacity
  • Rental of buildings, facilities and/or equipment necessary to expand capacity or facilitate social distancing
  • Technology that allows increased capacity or business resilience
  • Facility reconfiguration to meet social distancing guidelines
  • Costs associated with:
    • COVID-19 sanitation and worker safety supplies
    • Employer-provided COVID-19 testing
    • Increased inspections
  • Wages and hazard pay
  • Livestock intake and storage equipment
  • Packaging and handling equipment
  • Processing and manufacturing equipment
  • Upgrades to utilities
  • Warehouse equipment
  • Water treatment/management equipment
  • Other business adaptation and diversification activities

Questions?

Call us at 785-564-6700 or email us at SecuringLocalFoods@ks.gov if you have questions about the Securing Local Food Systems grant program.