U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development Alaska State Director Jim Nordlund today announced a $48,150 working capital grant award to Young's Timber, Inc. in Tok. The dollar-per-dollar match funding will help Young’s with marketing, wood chip production and delivery in rural Alaska Interior areas, and comes from USDA-Rural Development’s Value-Added Producer Grant program (VAPG).
"Young’s is a family-run, generational business and was established in 1993. It has been using Interior forest wood that has burned, or wood that that poses a potential fire hazard. This reduces fossil fuel costs and creates sustainable jobs. This is good news for Interior Alaska and is in keeping with our agency’s initiative of promoting renewable energy, said Nordlund."
The VAPG program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and/or marketing of bio-based, value-added products. Generating new products, creating and expanding marketing opportunities, and increasing producer income are the goals of this program. Funding of each award announced is contingent upon the recipient meeting the terms of the grant agreement.
In 2014, a VAPG in the amount of $91,100 was awarded to Wrigley Farms, LLC which does business as Alaska Flour Company. This company is the only commercial flour mill in Alaska. It specializes in high-quality, artisan, stone-ground barley flour and barley cereals that are grown and milled on their farm in Delta Junction. Their one-to-one match funding was used to develop and purchase more appealing packaging supplies for the flour and cereal they produce, and pay for marketing expenses to introduce the locally grown products into more Alaskan markets. Emphasis was placed on accessing larger retail chains and institutional bulk sales through distributors.
Value-Added Producer Grants are a key element of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative, which coordinates the Department’s work on local and regional food systems. These are major contributors to rural economic development.
Congress increased funding for the VAPG when it passed the 2014 Farm Bill. That measure builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past seven years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.
For more information on the VAPG in Alaska, please contact Renee Johnson, Director, Business Programs at: (907) 761-7712, or renee.johnson@ak.usda.gov.
Since 2009, USDA-Rural Development has invested nearly $2 billion in 225 rural Alaskan communities. These investments in housing, community facilities, business, energy, water and sewer, telecom and electric have helped to grow rural Alaska’s economy and enhance the quality of life for its residents.