Business Builder Award Program
The Southwest Regional Food Business Center is excited to announce the Business Builder Award Program is launching in Arizona on January 6th, 2025.
The Center’s Business Builder Award Program will support supply chain resiliency by building the capacity of small and mid-sized food producers, food businesses or networks of businesses. These awards are here to help local and regional food businesses grow by giving them the funds they need to tap into new markets, expand their reach and strengthen connections within local and regional supply chains.
The Business Builder Award Program focus will be on bolstering local food supply chains that will prioritize aggregation, processing and distribution of locally-produced food designed to feed local people. Our goal is to support small and mid-sized growers in increasing their food processing capacity and expanding market opportunities by introducing infrastructural opportunities and value-added products that can be sold locally.
In short, by focusing on such projects, we strive to impact as many Arizonans and Arizona food businesses as possible.
So, what does this look like in practice? It can be a few different things: infrastructure projects that expand access to markets; increasing food processing capacity; developing food supply chains; and expanding regional cooperatives and aggregation.
Examples of eligible projects include:
- Business planning, feasibility studies, market analysis
- Brand development and marketing materials
- Product developing, labeling, and packaging
- Food safety compliance, training, and planning
- Value-chain coordination, salaries, operating costs, and equipment/vehicles
- Improving processing, marketing, and distribution services
- Cold storage, both for individuals and for central shared storage (warehouse)
- Refrigerated transportation
- Aggregation centers for product (physical or online platform)
- Equipment in processing centers for meat, poultry, canning