Seeds of Success: Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program Grants Support Local Communities
 Join us on our new platform, StoryMaps, as we highlight Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) grant recipients across the country.
Grant recipients share why they chose the grant, how it helped them and the surrounding local community and where they are now. Gain insights from their lessons learned and find helpful resources.
With this mix of technical assistance, peer sharing, and storytelling, we are hopeful that you’ll find something useful to you - whether you are a state agency, producer, non-profit, or a past, current, or future grantee.
We’ll be adding new stories every month!
Delcambre Seafood and Farmers Market
The Delcambre Seafood and Farmers Market, located in the Twin Parish on the Gulf Coast between the Iberian and Vermilion Parishes in Louisiana, used their FMPP 2016 grant to create targeted advertising, family-friendly activities, and marketing strategies designed to retain vendors and consumers. The funds also allowed them to recruit and train vendors and equip the market with professional signage and promotional material, support annual training for vendors and monthly educational opportunities. As a result, the market:
- Increased direct to consumer sales by producers and fishermen by 7000% by the end of the grant in 2019 and
- Retained over 60 vendors monthly (max capacity) and increased the seafood product line from four items to over ten.
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Miles Smith Farm
Miles Smith Farm is a farm owned by
Carole Soule and Bruce Dawson in
Loudon, New Hampshire. The 36 acres combine part of a farm owned by Miles Smith since the 1850s and two neighboring farms. They raise Scottish Highlander and Angus cattle both on the home farm as well as on 150 acres leased across New Hampshire. Miles Smith Farms credits the 2012 FMPP and 2014 LFPP grant funds as why they were able to acquire institutional buyers in the healthcare industry. In addition, the funds allowed them to develop marketing materials, hire salespeople, and design a new webpage. As a result:
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Five health care institutions made the switch to local meat. Two of the institutions, in the fall of 2020, were still purchasing from Miles Smith Farm and the remaining three continued to buy local meat, and
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15 local businesses throughout the supply chain have seen positive economic impacts.
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Jannus, Inc.
Jannus Inc. is a non-profit in Boise, Idaho which focuses on community health, public policy, and economic opportunity through an array of programming. Jannus Inc.’s Global Gardens program helps beginning farmers gain the necessary skills to enter the local marketplace. The program primarily works with refugee populations in the area. The 2016 FMPP funds allowed Global Gardens to hire two staff members dedicated to networking and expanding the program’s markets. As a result of these efforts, Global Gardens:
- Brought in new farmers to the program and increased gross sales by 311% for farmers selling at local Boise farmers’ markets and
- Doubled CSA membership and increased sales by 138%.
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Innovations in State Policy and Implications for Local and Regional Food Sectors Webinar
January 25 at 1:00 pm EST
 Across the country, State and local organizations adapted to meet the unique needs of each state. This webinar will highlight three areas of innovation: farmers markets, K-12 feeding programs, and the meat processing sector. Panelists will discuss pivots and innovations in each of these spaces, as well as the impacts of state and local responses to local and regional food system stakeholders.
The discussion will feature Commissioner Kate Greenberg from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Deputy Secretary Julie Keeney of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and will be moderated by Lisa Benson, Executive Director of the National State Departments of Agriculture Foundation.
Neighbor Loaves Innovation Brief
The COVID-19 pandemic threatened the existence of many local bakeries as consumers stayed home and wholesale accounts dried up. Artisan Grain Collaborative, a collective of Mid-Western bakers, chefs, millers, and farmers created Neighbor Loaves, an initiative to support struggling bakeries and community feeding organizations. Through this program, bakeries offer whole wheat sandwich loaves that customers donate by paying the regular retail price. In turn, these loaves are distributed to organizations helping community members in need, while also generative a key source of revenue for bakeries.
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Nominations due March 5, 2021
USDA is seeking members for a new advisory committee on urban agriculture, part of a broader effort to focus on the needs of urban farmers. The 12-person committee will advise the Secretary of Agriculture on the development of policies and outreach relating to urban, indoor and other emerging agricultural production practices as well as identify any barriers to urban agriculture. Interested individuals or organization may nominate themselves or others by March 5, 2021.
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USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will mail survey forms to approximately 36,500 producers nationwide. Responses are due by Feb.16, 2021.
As directed under the 2018 Farm Bill, the 2020 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey is a special study provides data on the marketing of locally and regionally produced agricultural food products. The survey will gather data on the marketing of food from farm producers directly to consumers, retailers, institutions, and a variety of local food intermediaries such as distributors and wholesalers that market and sell locally branded products. Information was asked on local food marketing practices during 2020, including items such as:
- Value of food sales by marketing practice (i.e. farmers markets, CSAs, restaurants, roadside stands, food hubs, and more)
- Commodity and value-added sales by marketing channel
- Federal farm program participation
This detailed information about direct marketing channels is not available from other USDA surveys. This data helps justify investing public and private funds in the sector, estimate the impacts of program support, identify market trends and best practices, and ascertain technical assistance needs.
Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP)
Applications due March 16, 2021
The Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program, formerly known as the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program (FINI), supports projects to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables among low-income consumers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by providing incentives at the point of purchase. The program will test strategies that could contribute to our understanding of how best to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. In addition to other factors, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will give priority to projects that have demonstrated the ability to provide services to underserved communities and/or economically distressed communities, particularly Opportunity Zones.
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Applications due May 4, 2021
The Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP) fights food insecurity through developing community food projects that help promote the self-sufficiency of low-income communities. NIFA's Community Food Projects (CFP) intends to solicit applications and fund two types of grants: Community Food Projects (CFP) and Planning Projects (PP).
CFP supports the development of projects with a one-time infusion of federal dollars to make such projects self-sustaining. CFPs are designed to create community-based food projects with objectives, activities and outcomes that are in alignment with Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program (CFPCGP) primary goals. Planning Projects complete a plan toward the improvement of community food security in keeping with the primary goals of the CFPCGP. Planning Projects focus on a defined community and describe in detail the activities and outcomes of the project.
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Webinar on February 9, 2021
Strategic Economic and Community Development (SECD) encourages and promotes regional economic and community strategic planning in rural America. Applicants to covered USDA Rural Development programs under SECD are encouraged to consider projects that support a multi-jurisdictional or multi-sectoral plan. These plans must provide measurable results in helping rural communities build robust and sustainable economies through strategic investments in broadband, businesses and community facilities. Covered programs in FY 2021 are:
Learn more by joining a webinar on Tuesday, February 9 from 4:00-5:00 pm ET.
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