 Region 5 Development was recently selected to be one of 29 projects to be given over $400,000 from Art Place America. Logan Gay spoke with development planners from Region 5 Development about their plans for their funds. After an intense application process, Region 5 Development Commission was awarded $440,000 from Art Place America's National Creative Placemaking Fund. And what that is, is it's a fund that helps organizations better the economic development, better agriculture, better educational systems, so they have kind of a bunch of different categories that they fit this in, but it's all based around arts and culture in the end. Region 5 Development is planning on using the money to support a local food processing facility in Little Falls, called Sprouts Growers and Makers Marketplace. Over the next three years, I'm at the Sprout Marketplace in Little Falls, which is a 20,000 square foot processing facility that has a community kitchen in there, an open space for marketplace, vendors, things like that. So we're going to be having all of our events and activities based around economic development and arts and culture happen at this marketplace. The money will go towards several projects. There'll be cooking demonstrations. We'll have some cooking classes. We might do some sort of a chopped kind of thing with cultural ingredients in the basket. Region 5 Development believes this grant could be life-changing. The experiences that people will get to have because of this grant is so important. The people that it'll touch because of this grant, because of it being in our community, is huge. In Staples, Logan Gaye, Lakeland News. The next Sprout Growers and Makers Marketplace event will take place on January 28th. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.