2007 Grant Recipient Press Release
2006 Grant Recipients
2005 Grant Recipients
2004 Grant Recipients
2003 Grant Recipients
2002 Grant Recipients
2001 Grant Recipients
A Six-Year Retrospective
The North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission is pleased to present this Six-Year Retrospective featuring 33 successful projects funded by the commission from 2001 to 2007.We believe this publication will help North Carolinians - including elected representatives, community leaders and the general public - more fully understand the role the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission is playing to secure a better future for those citizens adversely affected by the decline of tobacco-related income and employment.
Grants - 2004 Recipients
In the 2004-2005 State Budget, virtually all of the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission’s income was diverted to the State’s General Fund. Pursuant to this legislative action, the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission has voted to suspend the 2004 granting cycle. The Commission reserves the right to reallocate unspent grant funds during this period of time.
2004 Out of Cycle Grants
Project: Project Rapid***
Contact: Jennifer Lantz
Wilson Economic Development Council
P.O. Box 728
Wilson, NC 27894-0728
(252) 237-1115
Grant Amount: $350,000
Summary: The TTFC would partner with other funders to recruit a pharmaceutical company to locate their North American packaging, quality control laboratory and distribution in Wilson County. The project will create an investment of $70 million and create 300 jobs over five years in an area with large amounts of displaced tobacco workers. The grant was made out-of-cycle in the public interest of creating jobs in a tobacco-growing and tobacco-processing county which has been experiencing significant layoffs of workers in tobacco related industries.
Area Served: Wilson and surrounding counties
Project: Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Project
Contact: Jason Roehrig
Rural Advancement Foundation International–USA (RAFI)
PO Box 640
Pittsboro, NC 27312
(919) 542-1396
Grant Amount: $185,000
Summary: During 2004-2007, this project will generate up to 15 cost-share (up to $10,000) initiatives in seven tobacco producing counties by (1) enabling individual tobacco growers and tobacco-dependent communities to test farm-based initiatives to supplement or replace tobacco income and (2) to help in developing the rural workforce by assisting growers in acquiring the skills to redirect scarce resources into viable agricultural businesses. This grant is made in response to hurricane damage to farms and the end of price supports for tobacco.
Area Served: Caswell, Duplin, Granville, Lee, Moore, Nash and Yancey
Project: Growing the NC Medicinal Herb Industry
Contact: Jeanine Davis
NC State University
455 Research Drive
Fletcher, NC 28732
(828) 684-3562
Grant Amount: $94,371
Summary: This project will introduce more tobacco farmers to herb production. The grantee will research and develop marketing benefits as part of their overall goal of determining if N.C. farmers can produce the quality and quantity of medicinal herbs required by the industry at a price that is competitive in a global market. The grant is made in response to hurricane damage to farms and the end of price supports for tobacco.
Area Served: Statewide
www.ncspecialtycrops.org
www.ncherb.org
Project: Western NC Agricultural Tourism and Crop Diversification Program
Contact: Robert Hawk
NC Cooperative Extension Service
P.O. Box 308
Waynesville, NC 28786
(828) 255-5522
Grant Amount: $104,313
Summary: Project's objective is to provide ‘mini grants’ as an incentive to diversify farm operations that could generate new economic growth in Western North Carolina. The grants will provide financial aide to farmers who are taking risks in new markets. This could be either through other crops or agriculture tourism efforts such as corn mazes and pick-your-own produce as examples. Project will include educating, training and informing 100 farmers and other individuals in their communities on the opportunities and possibilities of agricultural tourism, crop diversification and marketing of these new business ventures. The project will award a select number of tobacco farmers and/or quota holders a $2,500 grant to reduce the start-up cost of new opportunities in local, regional, and global markets. The grant is made in response to hurricane damage to farms and the end of price supports for tobacco.
Area Served: 15-county area of Western North Carolina including the Cherokee Indian Reservation: Madison, Buncombe, Yancey, Haywood, Henderson, Avery, Macon, Mitchell, Jackson, Swain, Clay, Cherokee, Watauga, Transylvania, Graham
Project: Tobacco Buyout Farmland Conservation Planning
Contact: Chuck Peoples
Executive Director
Tar River Land Conservancy
PO Box 1161
Louisburg, NC 27549
(919) 496-5902
Grant Amount: $60,000
Summary: The purpose of this grant is to produce an information package and a farmland conservation plan to identify and educate tobacco quota owners about possible tax savings associated with “working farm” conservation easements in light of the tobacco buyout which will help in conserving working farms statewide. Working tobacco farms have contributed to our state’s agricultural economy, water quality, and wildlife habitat and this project will assist with preventing the wholesale transition of working tobacco farms to suburban development. TRLC is facilitating this grant on behalf of the Land Trust Council of North Carolina. The grant was made out-of-cycle in the public interest of providing information on use of buyout money to preserve farmland and riparian buffers.
Area Served: Statewide
** The Full Commission decided at the June 15, 2004 meeting that the normal granting cycle be suspended because of the lack of new funding this year. Instead of funding new initiatives through a 2004 granting cycle, the members decided to focus the Commission's limited available funds on maintaining current grantees and otherwise furthering the statutory obligations of the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission.
*** Awarded prior to the June 15, 2004, meeting. Grant de-obligated at May 6, 2005, meeting.