Submitted by Thurston County WSU Extension Office
Funding American Rescue Plan Act grants were awarded to Thurston County Farmers to ensure that the economy of our region, including the businesses and individuals who contribute to and rely on it, recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
This funding was provided in March 2022 and helped Thurston County farmers emerge stronger, more resilient, and positioned to thrive.
50 different farms and businesses received a total of $478,111 in funding. This grant helped to fund many essential needs such as: equipment, payroll, lost sales, infrastructure, marking items, PPE, and more.
The recipients were surveyed about the impacts of this grant funding and had many great things to say:
“This funding helped us come back from being in the red the last two years. We lost a significant amount of funds from being closed, losing vendors and customers. This funding helped us emerge from the ashes.”
“Out of any of the pandemic assistance grants geared towards farmers, this grant was the most immediate and useful for us. Any amount of grant money is EXTREMELY helpful to us, but this helped us weather a difficult time where we were facing a lot of unknowns and the potential for a lot of loss, and we are very grateful to the people nudging us to take the help and for their work in speaking up to use the pool of resources to fund small farms. The last few years would have been a lot more difficult and stressful without it. Thank you!”
“Knowing that we would get this grant helped us not only financially but also gave us some hope while going through these tough times as small business owners.”
These services were provided by Thurston Economic Development Council and WSU Extension Office Thurston County with many thanks to our Thurston County Commissioners, Thurston Strong Coalition, American Rescue Plan, Thurston Economic Council, and WSU Extension Office Thurston County.
