Produce Patch lands grant
A Daviess County agricultural business is one of 17 Hoosier farm operations that have received a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Marketing Service.
The Produce Patch, headquartered near Plainville, will be one of 17 food operations in the state that will be sharing in $6.7 million in grants through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program.
Amy Holstine, co-owner of the Produce Patch, says the business applied for the grant about a year ago, and was surprised when the awards were announced.
'When President Donald Trump got elected and he started cutting out all of the grants, we kind of figured that this wasn't going to happen. We had not heard anything for months and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. Then last week we started hearing from them again,' she said. 'It is really exciting. It will allow us to move the business forward in a quicker manner and in the end, we will be able to serve a lot more folks with a lot larger variety of produce. That's at the heart of what we do.'
The grant will cover 75% of the cost of a major construction expansion for the Produce Patch operation.
'We have already outgrown our current packing shed. This will allow us to expand into a larger warehouse and packing shed with updated and larger coolers, and loading docks that will allow us to operate more seamlessly and expand. It will be a lot more efficient than our current operation,' said Holstine. 'We hope to have the construction to start on the building this fall and have it up and running next spring.'
Holstine says the Produce Patch operations have largely been limited to growing seasons because of the smaller facilities. Now, the business will be able to work with different markets in larger parts of the year.
'In the past we have worked with people like the hospital. With this facility that we are going to build, we hope to become more of a year-round operation where we can aggregate food and distribute it for a greater part of the year. It should help us start earlier in the spring and expand our operations into later in the fall,' she said. 'We grow a lot of our own produce, but we also purchase a lot from farms all around the area. We go into southern Illinois for strawberries, peaches. It will help us strengthen those relationships and help other farmers find an end source for their products.'
The grants went to small farm-based food companies around the state producing everything for the table from honey to meat and building resiliency across the middle of the food chain.
'Indiana farmers work hard to produce millions of pounds of fruits, vegetables and other pantry staples each year that are eventually shipped across state lines or do not even make it to market,' Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith, Indiana's Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development said. 'This grant funding will ensure more Hoosiers are fed by Hoosiers and that these organizations can better serve their communities.'
In an unrelated action, the owners of the Produce Patch announced plans for construction of a new retail operation. The new facility will go where the former stand on SR 57 was.
'We intend to put a retail market there in Washington. We are hoping to be in that by early summer,' said Holstine. 'We will be opening next week. We will be rolling in a wagon with a little canopy and a small building. That way we can operate during construction.'
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