SEWEDA receives $18,000 USDA grant

The Southeast Washington Economic Development Association recently received an $18,000 USDA grant for rural business development.

“It's going to be used for rural micro farming enterprise programming,” said Sarah McKnight, Whitman County SEWEDA director.

McKnight said SEWEDA is planning three workshops for the benefit of local “stakeholders,” which would include growers, small vendors, local ag start ups and ag businesses.

“I'm trying to reach out to people I think would benefit from it,” said McKnight.

The first of the workshops being planned would be a scholarship for local stakeholders to attend the Palouse Clearwater Food Coalition Food Summit Jan. 27, 2017, in Moscow.

“I'm looking for local stakeholders for a scholarship fund,” said McKnight. “The scholarship would pay for them to attend that.”

The cost to attend the summit ranges from $15 to $200.

“I'm not sure how that is divided up,” said McKnight.

The second and third workshops are about developing resources for small, diverse farmers and small, value added ag businesses. McKnight said these workshops would be teaching programs such as Quickbooks and Wordpress to these stakeholders.

McKnight said she is also working with the newly-formed Whitman County Food Coalition to identify stakeholders.

The $18,000 grant expires in July of 2017, and it is split between four counties. The counties include Whitman, Asotin, Columbia and Garfield. Brad McMasters, Port of Columbia economic development director, applied for the grant on behalf of SEWEDA.

“The rest of us get to benefit off of it,” said McKnight.

The programs, by the definition of the grant, have to be held in Colfax. McKnight said the grant is specifically targeting Colfax, Asotin, Dayton and Pomeroy.

McKnight said she will post details of the workshops in the Whitman County Gazette, on seweda.org and startupwhitman.com. Anyone with questions or seeking more information can e-mail her.

whitman@seweda.org