Food Hubs and Farm Stops Grant Program

Farm to Family is an innovative program of the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (MDARD) that offers grants, networking opportunities, and marketing consultations for farmers, food businesses, and others in local food supply chains. To launch program activities in 2025, the Farm to Family Program offered a grant opportunity to strengthen Michigan food hubs and farm stops. This grant was designed in direct response to needs reported by farmers and other stakeholders during community engagement events across the state. MDARD supports the expansion of current service delivery, new service delivery, equipment, market access plans, distribution, and/or additional processing capacity expansion plans for current food hubs and farm stops.

Farm Stops offer a year-round, every day, retail-style market where consumers can buy local produce from farmers or producers, typically on the consignment model; producers set their prices and own their product until it is sold. Farm Stops are mission-driven and prioritize supporting small-scale producers by sourcing directly within a specified, local radius, with a strong emphasis on customer education and farm-level transparency.

Food Hubs, per USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, are an important subset of food value chains: by offering a combination of aggregation, distribution, and marketing services at an affordable price, food hubs make it possible for many producers to enter larger-volume markets that boost their incomes and provide opportunities for scaling up production. AMS counts more than 200 food hubs in the United States, 11 of them in Michigan according to Michigan State University.

The 2025 round awarded 16 projects — 9 food hubs and 7 farm stops — with individual awards from $25,000 to $50,000, funding items such as cold and freezer storage, food processing and packaging equipment, refrigerated vehicles and truck leases, point-of-sale systems, marketing materials, and electrician/installation services.

Eligible applicants for this grant program must be Michigan-based farm stops adhering to the definitions in the program description, or Michigan-based food hubs recognized by and listed on the Michigan Food Hub Network Food Hub Directory.

All applicants must be registered as a vendor in the SIGMA Vendor Self Service system with the State of Michigan prior to submitting an application. For the purposes of this grant program, MDARD retains the right to make the final decision about whether an entity applying as a Farm Stop qualifies as a Farm Stop, and whether an entity applying as a Food Hub qualifies as a Food Hub.

• Grants will be awarded a maximum amount of $50,000. Applications must be submitted in whole dollar amounts, rounded to the nearest $1.

• Only one application per food hub or farm stop will be considered.

• Up to 10% administrative cost is allowed (the grantee's allowable direct costs for overall management of the grant).

• Ineligible costs: salaries, wages, staff benefits, and travel costs. There may be additional ineligible costs; applicants are informed case by case during review.

• Applications are encouraged to demonstrate expansion of current service delivery, new service delivery, equipment, market access plans, distribution, and/or additional processing capacity expansion plans. In the "Measurable Outcomes" section applicants must at minimum report projected additional throughput; projected additional dollar value flowing through the value chain to producers and/or farmers; Michigan counties of agricultural product origin; the number of Michigan farmers participating now and to be added; and how many more consumers will be reached.

• Each grantee must submit written reports and appropriate financial documentation to MDARD, and may be required to report on outcomes and impact for up to three years after the grant period ends.

Applicants must use the MiAgGrants site to apply, via the Food Hub and Farm Stop application; all sections must be complete to be considered for review. MiAgGrants is accessed through MiLogin (Citizen or Business account, with multifactor authentication). Applicants must first register as a vendor in SIGMA Vendor Self Service.

Applications were due via MiAgGrants by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on February 21, 2025 (application opened January 21, 2025). After completing and saving all pages, navigate the left-side menu to the "Status options" section and click "Submit Application"; then check the document landing page shows "Application in Review" to confirm submission.

Applications were reviewed February 22 – April 1, 2025 (tentative), with awards targeted for announcement June–July 2025.

Help: for trouble accessing MiAgGrants, contact the MDARD Customer Service Center at 800-292-3939 (Monday–Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm), or the system administrator Muneeb Khan at KhanM16@michigan.gov.

• MiAgGrants help page

• Michigan Food Hub Network Food Hub Directory

• SIGMA Vendor Self Service registration

• MDARD grant recipients dashboard

• How to Start a Farm Stop (Kathryn Barr)

• Sign up for email updates about Michigan agriculture grants