USDA grant to help Franklin County CDC improve food processing

The Franklin County Community Development Corporation just received a half a million dollars from the USDA.

The 3 year grant will help the Franklin County CDC improve their food processing center and increase sales to institutions and retail markets.

The Franklin County Community Development Corporation is based in Greenfield. They work with food entrepreneurs and farmers, to help them create products for stores.

They’ll use some of the grant money to purchase a washer chiller and dryer conveyor belt, and a bag sealer, an equipment that’ll help increase efficiency at their western Massachusetts Food Processing Center.

“Everything that those pieces of equipment will do, are being done manually right now so this will help us able to double our capacity for the number of pounds of veggies we freeze in a day,” said Joanna Benoit, Food Business Development Specialist at the Franklin County CDC.

Benoit told 22News the new equipment will help them increase the amount of frozen vegetables they produce.

They will soon be able to place the frozen foods in their 2,800 square foot cold storage facility, that’s under construction.

They expect construction to complete in about 3 weeks

Read more: USDA grant to help Franklin County CDC improve food processing