[Pittsboro, NC, August 13, 2024] — RAFI today announced the recipients of its Beginning Farmers Stipends. The grant program provides stipends of up to $5,000 for historically underserved farmers and ranchers who have been farming for less than three years. The fund has awarded at total of $75,000 to 16 grantees across nine states.
RAFI’s Beginning Farmers Stipends support the success of beginning farmers by helping to reduce financial barriers. Funds will be used to cover farming start-up and/or production costs. Of the 16 awardees, 50% raise livestock, 75% grow vegetables, and 50% grow herbs. This year’s grantees are from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. See awardee profiles on the RAFI website and learn more about our grant programs.
This project is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a key funder of the Farmers of Color Network since 2020.
RAFI Executive Director Edna Rodriguez said, “The Beginning Farmers Stipend program meets a huge need — helping the next generation of farmers cover the prohibitive start-up costs of stewarding land, feeding communities, and building wealth in rural and urban communities alike. We are excited to see the impact this year’s cohort of farmers will have on communities across the Southeast. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has been an integral part of the success of our granting programs for farmers of color and other historically underserved farmers. We are grateful for their continuing generous support.”
Farm projects supported by the 2024 RAFI Beginning Farmer Stipends include creating season extension structures, building fencing for sustainable pasture management, constructing mobile dryers and storage, and preparing land and infrastructure for expanded production. Two grantee projects are outlined below. See all awarded beginning farmer stipends on our website.
Michelle Joan Papillion at Royal Queens Farm in Church Point, LA, is using ancestral land to protect and grow rare herbal and botanical native species plants. Papillion raises bees, fruits, vegetables, and native herbs. They aim to plant more medicinal floral and botanical species and rare herbal plants. The pillars of Royal Queen Farms are growing and sharing food, teaching and educating on sustainable land-stewarding practices, and sharing resources, networks, and knowledge with the community. The farm will prepare additional land to expand its operation and strengthen irrigation systems.
Juan Quinonez Zepeda and his family own and co-manage Cebadilla Ranch in Senatobia, MS. Raised on cattle farm operations from a young age, he began working in the industry at 14 alongside his father. Named after the Mexican barley fields his father worked in and where he met his mother, Cebadilla Ranch is a multi-cultural, -lingual, and -generational cattle ranch on the bluff of the Mississippi Delta with a mission to conserve traditional Mexican knowledge, build collective Latinx immigrant power, and foster farm ownership opportunities for Latinx farmworkers in the region. While founded in 2024, his family collectively brings over 30 years of working in north Mississippi’s beef cattle industry and ranches across the region. They will purchase water tanks, feed bunkers, and Black Angus cattle to jumpstart their operation and beef production.
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RAFI challenges the root causes of unjust food systems, supporting and advocating for economically, racially, and ecologically just farm communities. We envision a thriving, sustainable, and equitable food system: where farmers and farmworkers have dignity and agency; where they are supported by just agricultural policies; and where corporations and institutions are accountable to their community. RAFI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and incorporated in 1990.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work, and life. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.