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Grants up to $20,000 Available to Seafood Industry

Louisiana commercial fishermen have a short window of time to apply for Rural Relief Small Business Grants from the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) and Lowe’s.

Grants range from $5,000 to $20,000. Applications are accepted in “rounds.” Applicants must submit a new application for each round in order to be considered for funding for that round. The next round opens on Nov. 26 and closes on Dec. 2. Additional upcoming application rounds are Dec. 29 to Jan. 5, and Jan. 26 to Feb. 2.

Applicants can obtain more information from the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation at (337) 367-7421, visiting www.iberiabiz.org/liscgrant or visiting www.lisc.org/covid-19/small-business-assistance/small-business-relief-grants/frequently-asked-questions/.

Only businesses in communities of 50,000 people or less are eligible for the grants. All applicants must have an email address and bank account. Funds can be used for such things as paying rent and utilities, meeting payroll, paying outstanding debt, upgrading technology infrastructure or other immediate operational costs.

Applicants can only apply for one business. Applications will be reviewed based on a criteria designed to prioritize particularly challenged businesses, and final grantees will be randomly selected from the top scoring applicants.

“There are a lot of commercial fishermen, ports and processors who have been hurt by COVID and then again by the hurricanes,” said Kevin Savoie, Marine Extension agent for Cameron and Calcasieu parishes for Louisiana Sea Grant and the LSU AgCenter. “These grants are an opportunity for those businesses to mitigate some of the pain. But they have to act fast. Application deadlines close soon.”