For farmers and ranchers who once served in the military, Farmer Veteran Coalition provides resources to mobilize veterans to feed America. One of those resources, the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund gives grants to military veterans and currently serving members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are now farming. This year, the fund is on track to award a total of $500,000 in grants.
Awards range from $1,000 to $5,000 and can be used to purchase farming equipment and related supplies that will make a direct impact on their farming operation. The application can be found on their website. February 14 is the deadline to submit an application to Farmer Veteran Coalition’s Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund.
Veterans who submit an application to the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund are automatically entered into Kubota’s Geared to Give program, which provides donated equipment and grants to help farmer veterans achieve self-sufficiency and take their farming operation to the next level. The Geared to Give program has provided 31 pieces of equipment to farmer veterans since it was established in 2015. To learn more about the Geared to Give program, visit Kubota Cares.
“We are so close to our goal of raising $500,000 to award to farmer veterans during the 2022 Fellowship cycle and it’s not too late for companies and individual donors to help us get across the finish line,” said Rachel Petitt, FVC’s Fellowship Fund program manager. “The money raised for the Fellowship Fund goes directly to veterans and gives them a well-deserved boost to their farming operation.”
Since it was established in 2011, the Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund has awarded $3.5 million in small grants to more than 800 veterans. Access to capital is often one of the biggest challenges beginning farmers face and the Fellowship Fund was established to help address that challenge for U.S. Military veterans and servicemembers who are embarking on careers in agriculture.
Last year, 138 farmer veterans from around the country received more than $420,000 for things like greenhouses, walk-in coolers, grow tents, walk-behind tractors, fencing, cold storage units, water filtration systems, and honey processing equipment, among many other items.
