Tuesday, March 26, 2013
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — U.S. officials are expanding a program intended to reduce poverty and improve life in rural areas through better access to federal funding.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was expected in South Carolina today to announce the expansion of the so-called StrikeForce initiative, which already operates in 10 states. The program will now also be available in the Carolinas, the Dakotas, Alabama and Virginia.
The goal of StrikeForce is to help farmers, food producers and other businesses get access to money for projects such as new wells, greenhouses, community gardens, kitchen space, and summer meals for low-income school children.
The money is often hard to access due to complicated grant applications, requirements for matching funds, and limited staffing.
"You just don't have the technical wherewithal, technical assistance, in your city officials, council members, part-time mayors, even your city administrators, to know what the federal programs are," Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who is also an ex-mayor of a small town in Iowa, told The Associated Press this week. "Oftentimes these programs have matching requirements. For small communities operating by themselves, that is very difficult."