Section-by-section fill template mapped 1:1 to the published VDACS Specialty Crop Block Grant Program 2027 application fields — project info, budget narrative, measurable outcomes, work plan timeline, and required attachments. Goal: be fillable in well under 30 minutes on day one of the SCBGP 2027 cycle, gated only by the open items called out below.
SAM.gov UEI active & GAP audit complete. Both must close before SCBGP submission opens, even when every other section below is ready. UEI gate: SAM.gov Checklist. GAP gate: GAP & HACCP Readiness.
The VDACS SCBGP 2027 application opens with the Project Information / Applicant Information field block. Every sub-row is a drop-in line item — pre-typed from the IronRoost entity record and SAM.gov registration, with the project title and project period waiting to be locked at cycle opening. Filling this section should take under two minutes of straight copy-paste from already-validated entity data.
Organization legal name: IronRoost Farms, Inc. — Virginia C-Corp, SCC #12012225. UEI: [FILL IN — JP] — pull the 12-character alphanumeric string from the SAM.gov Entity Overview page and paste into the SCBGP application. EIN: [FILL IN — JP] — on file in accounting; cross-link the same identifier to the financials package DUNS/UEI section so every federal submission uses the same number. DUNS/UEI status: must be Active on SAM.gov on the day the SCBGP application is started AND on the day of award.
Project title placeholder: [FILL IN — JP] Hydroponic Leafy Greens Capacity Expansion. The 2027 cycle scope is hydroponic leafy greens (lettuce, kale, spinach, arugula, herbs), consistent with the existing SCBGP 2027 Skeleton; the title line is the only field that has to be re-confirmed verbatim against the 2027 RFA. Project period: [FILL IN — JP] — typical VDACS SCBGP project periods run 24 months from award; confirm the exact period definition in the 2027 RFA when it opens.
Primary contact: Jean-Pierre Maldonado, Sole Director and Officer, IronRoost Farms, Inc. — 2593 Cougar Lane, Locust Grove, VA 22508. Reuse the entity documentation from the SCBGP 2026 working outline; the registered agent and mailing address do not change between cycles.
Project Info section filled end-to-end in under two minutes by direct copy-paste from the SAM.gov Entity Overview and the entity binder. UEI matches the SAM string byte-for-byte; EIN matches the IRS letter; project title matches the 2027 RFA scope verbatim. Project period start and end dates are calendar-realistic (24 months out from award, not generic placeholders).
VDACS SCBGP 2027 requires a Budget Narrative that pairs each dollar figure with a cost-reasonableness explanation. The categories below inherit from the SCBGP 2027 Skeleton budget framework and the financials package; the match percentage and indirect rate lines are load-bearing for the SCBGP scoring rubric and must be stated explicitly, not implied.
VDACS SCBGP follows the standard federal cost categories: Personnel, Fringe, Travel, Equipment, Supplies, Contractual, Other, Indirect. Each cell below carries a [FILL IN] placeholder; the totals row is computed from the column totals once the 2027 RFA ceiling is published. Match dollars come from the seed deployment waterfall already documented on the financials page (no new debt); the indirect rate cited follows the federal 10% de minimis rate unless VDACS publishes a different rate in the 2027 RFA.
SCBGP is a federal grant administered by VDACS as the state agency. Federal funds cover the requested amount; IronRoost's match dollars come from the seed deployment waterfall documented on the Financials page (operating capital, not debt). The match-amount column in each row below is the IronRoost share; the SCBGP request column is the federal/state share. State match may vary cycle to cycle — confirm against the 2027 RFA's match section the day the RFA opens.
| Category | Item Description | Total Cost | SCBGP Request | IronRoost Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | Farmer Liaison (1.0 FTE, 24 mo) — hydroponic operator contracting & compliance | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Fringe | Standard fringe rate applied to Personnel line per IronRoost fringe policy | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Travel | Domestic travel to CEA partner sites, fresh-cut processor trade shows, VDACS review meetings | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Equipment | NFT/DWC hydroponic systems, climate control, supplemental lighting, greenhouse infrastructure | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Supplies | Seed stock, growing medium, nutrients, packaging materials, traceability labels | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Contractual | CEA operating partner subcontracts (per fair-contract framework already in use) | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Other | Virginia Grown campaign, buyer-demo events, fresh-cut processor trade show presence | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Indirect | Administrative overhead (10% de minimis rate, unless 2027 RFA specifies otherwise) | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] |
| Project Total | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | [FILL IN] | |
Every dollar in the table above must be backed by a one-sentence reasonableness justification in the narrative below the table: market-rate anchoring, prior-bid references, or fair-contract framework language. Without that, the budget reads as numbers without justification — the most common SCBGP reviewer audit gap. Reuse the seed deployment waterfall language on Financials as the rationale for the IronRoost match column.
VDACS SCBGP scoring rewards applications whose outcomes are concrete and quantifiable — not "increase specialty-crop sales" but "channelize X lbs of hydroponic leafy greens to Y Mid-Atlantic buyers over the 24-month project period, measured against baseline Z." The objective cards below map to the three objectives most likely to score on a hydroponic-leafy-greens 2027 application. Confirm the exact objective names against the 2027 RFA when it opens.
Increase hydroponic leafy-greens production capacity in Central Virginia. Build out CEA square footage, harden contract grower network, and stand up the cold-chain handling protocols required for fresh-cut retail and foodservice buyer acceptance.
Outcome metric language: [FILL IN — JP] — name the CEA square footage expanded, the number of CEA operator partners under fair contract, and the cold-chain handling SOP milestone.
Channel hydroponic leafy greens to named Mid-Atlantic buyers via the Virginia Grown and Virginiafresh co-branding motion. Reuse the institutional pipeline mapped for the 2026 poultry pilot — UVA, school systems, hospital systems, restaurant-direct.
Outcome metric language: [FILL IN — JP] — name the named institutional buyers, the trade-show presence cadence, and the expected weekly channel mix split (foodservice vs. retail).
Document CEA hydroponic system performance, seed-to-harvest nutrition data, and any extension-partner research framing. Only include this objective if the 2027 RFA explicitly rewards research/education activity — padding outcomes for padding's sake scores against the application.
Outcome metric language: [FILL IN — JP] — name the data points collected, the extension partner (if any) supporting the research framing, and the publication or reporting cadence.
VDACS SCBGP reviewer scoring anchors on numbers reviewers can verify on a follow-up call. "Increase Mid-Atlantic foodservice velocity" cannot be verified; "Channelize 18,000 lbs of hydroponic leafy greens to four named institutional buyers (UVA Dining, VCU Dining, Riverside Regional, Sentara) by month 18, measured against a baseline of 0 lbs in Q1 of Year 1" can. Every outcome card above carries a numeric baseline + target so reviewers don't have to estimate.
VDACS SCBGP work plan scoring rewards clearly-defined quarterly milestones. The 24-month project period divides into four quarters (Q1–Q4 of each project year); each quarter maps to a discrete deliverable with a named responsible party. Below is the four-quarter breakdown for the 2027 hydroponic leafy-greens scope; reuse the seeds from the SCBGP 2027 Skeleton months 1-24 timeline.
The timeline below is organized as a Q1 / Q2 / Q3 / Q4 sequence. Each row carries a phase-tag (the quarter anchor), a phase-body containing the activity name and a scope sentence, plus a [FILL IN] for the responsible party. This format mirrors the VDACS scoring rubric's expectation that every quarter has a named deliverable and a named owner.
The VDACS SCBGP 2027 application package requires a specific attachment set — missing or mis-named attachments are the most common reason an otherwise-ready package is rejected on intake. The checklist below names every expected attachment; each row links to the binder page that produces that artifact so the package assembles in one pass.
This page is print-to-PDF friendly. Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on macOS) for an offline working copy. The five sections render cleanly on US Letter. The parallel SCBGP 2027 federal path (FMPP FY27) and the cycle-monitoring page sit one nav click away:
Once every box above is ticked, IronRoost Farms is day-one-ready for the VDACS SCBGP 2027 cycle. The two open gate items (SAM.gov UEI + GAP audit) must move to Done on their own pages before Section 1 row 2 and Section 5 row 6 flip from Not Started to Done here. Status badges transition to In Progress as Section 2 budget numbers are filled and Section 4 quarters are date-pinned, then to Done on completion.