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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 12, 2018 10:08 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Art Haywood and Sen. Vincent J. Hughes, Sen. Judith L. Schwank |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Expanding Access to Farmers' Market Development Grants |
| In the near future, we plan on introducing legislation to expand and increase the Farmers’ Market Development Program. Farmers’ Markets have exploded in popularity over the past several years. Pennsylvania has the fourth-largest market in the nation for direct farm sales, and consumer demand for fresh foods continues to grow. Farmers’ markets have proven to be effective at delivering high-quality local produce to communities, especially low-income communities and food deserts in the commonwealth. Our proposal would expand the eligible uses of current Farmers’ Market Development grants to include: agritourism initiatives, construction of new farmers’ markets, renovating existing farmers’ markets, establishing satellite locations of existing farmers’ markets, business development and other infrastructure needs. In addition, our proposal would increase the maximum grant per farmers’ market from $10,000 to $100,000. Finally, our bill, beginning with fiscal year 2018-2019, appropriates $2.5 million annually for the Farmers’ Market Development Grant Program. We hope you will join us in sponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as SB1076