This program will establish a grant program for maine's wholesale seafood dealers and processors (located in maine) to recover costs directly attributable to the covid-19 pandemic

The $850,184 block grant from the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service's Pandemic Relief Activities: Farm and Food Worker Relief Grant Program will establish a grant program administered by the Maine Department of Marine Resources to provide reimbursement to licensed Maine seafood wholesale dealers and processors for eligible expenses incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible applicants may apply for individual grants ranging from $1,000 to $200,000 to recover costs for workplace safety measures, market pivots, facility retrofits, or housing, transportation and medical expenses necessary to protect employee health during the pandemic. Priority will be given to applicants ineligible for other federal relief programs and those with unreimbursed pandemic-related costs. The grant program aims to help seafood businesses more expeditiously recover from the impacts of the pandemic, though full compensation of all costs is not expected.

Applicants will apply to maine department of marine resources (medmr) for a grant program that will be established upon receipt of these funds. The grant program will be established in spring 2022 and run as soon as possible, with all available funds to be dispersed in this single opportunity. Eligible applicants are all medmr-licensed maine seafood wholesale dealers and processors. Applicants will be able to apply for grants ranging from $1000 to $200,000 for reimbursement of incurred expenses including workplace safety measures, market pivots, facility retrofits, or housing, transportation and medical expenses necessary to protect employee health due to, and during, the pandemic. Applicants will be required to justify through narrative application the circumstances that led to required facility changes orprovision of assistance, provide evidence of expenditures already incurred, and demonstrate that they continue to be operating as part of the application process. Medmr intends to prioritize distribution of these funds to applicants who have been, or remain ineligible for similar federal programs due to more restrictive eligibility requirements, as well as those have not had their expenses fully compensated by other relief funds. IT is expected that this response program will assist seafood businesses in recovering from the pandemic more expediently, but IT is not expected to fully compensate such businesses for their expenditures in response to the pandemic.