COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Friday, Duke Energy gave the South Carolina Department of Agriculture $100,000 to help local farmers scale up their operations and find sustainable markets for their produce.
The money is also meant to assist local farmers in committing to food safety.
"It's in all of our best interest as individuals and as companies and corporations - to help ensure and to help along their success," said Duke Energy Vice President Richard Jiran.
The new partnership between Duke Energy and the Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship (ACRE) is helping more South Carolina farmers receive their Good Agricultural Practices Certification (GAP), which verifies that products are handled and packed to the strictest food safety standards.
"The connection is simple: small business is South Carolina, and small farmers are small businesses," Jiran said.
"GAP is very important. It is not required by law and is voluntary but a lot of markets only accept GAP-certified products. So, the barrier is that the farmer has to bring money out-of-pocket to pay for the GAP audit," said ACRE Executive Director Kyle Player.
Farmer Leon Dorch Jr. hopes to receive his GAP certification soon.
"Looking for more opportunities to expand now; so, we are trying to reach out to vendors and aggregators as we can and let people know our product is available now," Dorch said.
Player works to help local farmers like Leon receive funding for certificates like GAP.
"So, when Duke came to me with this opportunity for the $100,000, I jumped at it to take $50,000 of that and find Black farmers throughout the state that could have their full gap certification covered," said Player.
ACRE will be working closely with farmers, including Leon, in the coming months to help them receive their GAP certification
"I hope to be in grocery stores by the end of the year. Sanitation is a big thing for grocery stores, so if they see I have this GAP certification and I've gone through the process of making my food safe, and I have the state come out and audit to make sure my food is safe, I am more likely to get those grocery store bids I am looking for," said Dorch.
The other half of the $100,000 will be used for Small Business Development grants to agricultural producers in the region Duke Energy serves.