Although the Farm Service Agency (FSA) can be helpful, it can also be intimidating and difficult to navigate. The Farmer Veteran Coalition team continually receives many questions from our members about different programs the FSA offers. As a result, FVC created a webinar series to help navigate the ins and outs of this USDA division.
This series, called the Brown Bag Lunch Webinar, started on May 24, 2023, to discuss the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) and the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP). The webinars have covered acreage reporting, the CCC-860 certification, and linkage requirements (crop insurance and NAP) in the months since.
Each webinar has an FSA representative as well as FVC’s Kate Bowen, Program Manager, to break down each topic and answer any questions the viewers may have. Brown Bag Lunch webinars are recorded and uploaded to FVC’s YouTube page, link below:
https://youtube.com/@farmvetcoalition?feature=shared
The Brown Bag Lunch webinars occur once a month at 12pm CST on the same day that Flower Hill Institute, a partner organization, holds their own office hours (3pm CST) about the same topic. These office hours are intended to be a more relaxed version of FVC’s webinars. People are encouraged to come in and out of these office hours to ask any questions or request clarification on anything that was talked about during the webinars. You can find more information about Flower Hill Institute and register for their office hours in the link below:
https://flowerhill.institute/usda-fsa
FVC plans on hosting four more Brown Bag Lunch webinars. The next webinar will cover the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP), taking place on September 20, 2023, at 12pm CST. You can register for the webinar using the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4kYKmAFpTfqG8CStS_JWWA
For further questions on the Brown Bag Lunch webinar series, contact Kate Bowen at kate@farmvetco.org or our support line at support@farmvetco.org and 855-382-3276. For more information on FSA resources, visit our FSA toolkit using the link below:
https://farmvetco.org/farm-services-agency-tool-kit-farmer-veteran-coalition/
