Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program

Funds will be used to issue grants for COVID-19-related costs incurred between January 27, 2020, the date upon which the public health emergency was declared by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, and December 31, 2021. Grants will cover the activities associated with: 

 

Workplace Safety Measures: Workplace safety measures, including, but not limited to, personal protective equipment, sanitizer, hand washing stations, air filters, thermometers, cleaning supplies, or similar items.

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In this first round of PRS funding, USDA is targeting support to small businesses in certain commodity areas and farmers markets. According to stakeholder feedback, small scale specialty crop producers and processors, meat processors, and distributors, and farmers markets were all significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and received insufficient federal support to address the costs they incurred to keep workers safe and help keep the U.S. food supply intact during the crisis. To target this support, producers, food processors/manufacturers, and wholesalers/distributors denoted in Appendix A, and farmers markets are eligible to apply for funding. Appendix A details the different small business size qualifications for each eligible industry. The small business size qualifications align with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) guidelines except for specialty crop producers, where SBA set the threshold for all agriculture producers regardless of specific segment at $1 million. USDA analysis of operations producing specialty crops, showed that the high value crops meant that a higher revenue level was needed to support a small full-time operation than agriculture producers in general and set the specialty crop small business threshold at $5 million. To see a list of agricultural products classified as specialty crops, please visit https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/scbgp/specialty-crop. A similar review of aquaculture, finfish farming, and shellfish farming operations suggests that this analysis would also be applicable to those operations. Because of similarities, the small business threshold for aquaculture, farmed finfish, and farmed shellfish producers is set at $5 million. All applicants must be domestic entities owned, operated, and located within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. While USDA is focusing this first round of funding to small businesses, USDA may expand eligibility in future rounds of funding to include additional businesses not covered by the first round. Future rounds are dependent upon availability of funds. USDA is also focusing this first round of funding on certain commodities due to the unique impacts of the pandemic on their businesses, USDA may expand eligibility in future rounds of funding to include commodities not covered by the first round. No cost sharing or matching funds are required.

USDA PRS Helpdesk