Helping Vermont Farmers Access Emergency Dollars

One of the defining elements of the work of our Farm Business team over the last year has been working with farmers to access emergency support funding from various sources. Historically, as part of the business planning process, we have assisted farms in understanding and applying for different grants and loans to support business development. But in 2020, we were called to quickly understand and execute applications to a whole new slate of emergency funding programs designed to help farmers stay in business and/or quickly pivot to changing market conditions.

In order to access potentially farm saving funds, farmers were required to navigate an acronym salad of Federal (CFAP 1 and 2, PPP, and EIDL), State (VCAAP, PUA) and private funds and complete a series of complicated applications with opaque eligibility requirements. As the pandemic unfolded, Intervale Center staff worked to help farms understand the various programs and integrate them into short-term pivots and long-term plans.

The Federal CFAP 2 program dispersed $32.1 million to farmers in the state of Vermont with an additional $25.6 million from the State managed VCAAP funding. Through the end of 2020, our business planners directly assisted 36 farms on accessing relief program funds, along with additional farms supported in 2021. These farms included vegetable farms, dairies and value-added producers who all experienced dramatic shifts in markets and business models.

We worked with one couple in 2019 to buy a vegetable farm and bedding plant business, and just before they were supposed to start their first season of plant sales, the pandemic hit. We worked with them on understanding pandemic-related staffing and market access issues, and we also helped them access the VCAAP program to cover the increased expenses related to Covid-19. This spring they were also able to get $40,000 in additional funds through the PPP Program which helped them pay their staff through the beginning of the season.

Navigating Covid-related business support programs was challenging and exhausting for farmers and our business planners but in many cases farm-saving. We continue to provide support as farmers emerge into a completely different reality as Covid-19 recedes. The funding from these programs helped them to make it through, and now the work of long-term viability once again becomes the focus of our farm business planning work.