Wednesday, July 31, 2013
YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan announced that Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is the recipient of a $296,816 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The grant, part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Community Food Project, will be used to teach food entrepreneurship in the city. The program’s goals are to help meet the food needs of low-income people and increase self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs, said Ryan of Niles, D-13th.
YNDC “has shown itself to be a real community leader, and this grant will help them develop new training strategies for local food production and preparation and increase healthy food options to those who do not have fresh food readily available,” he said Wednesday.
Presley Gillespie, YNDC’s executive director, said, “This critical funding will allow us to significantly expand our initiatives to train and encourage residents from neighborhoods across our city to start new food-based businesses and market gardens on vacant land.”