May 23, 2024
USDA kicked off National Small Business Month with the Midwest “Road to Prosperity” event at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO, on April 24.th and 25th. This was the 19thth event, starting in 2022, to provide regional business and economic development workshops that featured experts from the financial industry, federal government, community partners and stakeholders.
Through this partnership, USDA, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Small Business Administration continue to provide federal, state, local and private partner opportunities to self-employed individuals, small businesses and communities. Shared information, tools and resources are building assets, creating wealth and economic progress, and fostering hope in small businesses across the country.
One of the primary goals of Pathway to Prosperity is to improve small businesses’ contractual relationships with the Federal Government and private industry partners. This objective has been met and continues to be met. Last year, the Biden-Harris Administration surpassed its small business contracting goal of 23% for fiscal year 2023, awarding an all-time high of 28.4% of federal contract dollars to small businesses. As a result of the efforts of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), USDA received an A+ grade on the FY 2023 federal procurement Scorecard, which measures how well federal agencies meet their procurement goals. small business hiring every year. and Path to Prosperity are USDA and OSDBU’s premier outreach efforts that provide the tools and resources to small businesses to access federal procurement and programmatic opportunities across the country.
The Midwest States “Road to Prosperity” event included self-employed individuals, small businesses and communities from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. As a result, participants got more bank referrals and business development help. This event highlights how the Federal Government, along with local, state and private partners, are leveraging resources to address the needs of the economy by strengthening the engine of our economy and the glue of our communities: America’s small businesses, as stated the Undersecretary. for Administration, Malcom Shorter.
The Midwest event featured experts and dynamic discussions in the consistent areas of capital access and government contracting. The event also placed special emphasis on the agricultural industry’s value-added production and connections between suppliers and companies, as requested by local partners. The objectives of these two emphases were to promote awareness and accelerate the adoption of value-added business practices and increase access to markets through corporate purchasing programs, respectively.
Expert participants included owners and operators of agricultural businesses such as Tabletop Farm, R/Farms, Green Grass Cattle Company, and Midwest and Southern grocery chain Hy-Vee.
