Media contact: Selina Meiners, 202-734-9376
WASHINGTON, D.C September 12, 2017 – The U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture
(NIFA) today announced more than $8.6 million in available funding to assist
low-income individuals and communities in developing local and self-reliant
food systems. This funding is available through NIFA’s Community Food Projects
Competitive Grant Program, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
“This
program is important because it reaches beyond short-term food relief,” said
NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. “It integrates economic, social, and
environmental impacts to form comprehensive solutions to problems across all
food system levels.”
The primary goals of the Community
Food Projects
Competitive Grant Program are to meet the food needs of
low-income individuals, increase the self-reliance of communities in providing
for their food needs, promote comprehensive responses to local food access,
farm, and nutrition issues, and meet specific state, local or neighborhood food
and agricultural needs.
Grants aim to bring together stakeholders from
the distinct parts of the food system and foster understanding of national food
security trends and how they might improve local food systems.
All grants require a dollar-for-dollar match in resources. They
are intended to support the development of projects with a one-time installment
of federal assistance to establish and carry out self-sustaining, multipurpose
community food projects. Community Food Projects can be funded up to $400,000
over the course of 48 months. Planning Projects may be funded up to $35,000 for
the total project period, which is one year.
Eligible applicants include public food program service providers,
tribal organizations, and private nonprofit entities, including gleaners. The
following requirements must be met:
1. Have experience in the area of community food
work, job training and business development activities for food-related
activities in low-income communities, or efforts to reduce food insecurity in
the community;
2. Demonstrate competency to implement a project,
provide fiscal accountability, collect data, and prepare reports and other
necessary documentation;
3. Demonstrate a willingness to share information
with researchers, evaluators, practitioners, and other interested parties,
including a plan for dissemination of results;
4. Collaborate with one or more local partner
organizations to achieve at least one hunger-free community’s goal.
The
deadline for applications is Monday, December
4, 2017. See the request for
applications
for details.
Since
1996, Community Food Projects have awarded approximately $ $101 million to organizations nationally. Previously-funded projects
include Mississippi’s Choctaw Fresh Produce (CFP), a series of 5 farms
that built 15 unheated, greenhouse-like structures called high tunnels which
protect crops and extend the growing season by aiding the production of
thousands of pounds of chemical-free fruits and vegetables. These fruits and
vegetables are distributed to tribal members at a low seasonal cost and at a
central location through a unique, community-supported agriculture program. With
this grant, CFP helped increase healthy food access and overcome geographic and
economic barriers facing the community.
Another
project, DC Central Kitchen, a community kitchen in the
District of Columbia, develops and operates social ventures targeting the cycle
of hunger and poverty. They do this, in part, by preparing adults with high
barriers to employment for culinary careers, creating living wage jobs for
their graduates, and feeding the District. In 2016, 89 percent of their
students with high barriers to employment graduated from the Culinary Job
Training program with an 88 percent job placement rate. Additionally, their Community
Meals team prepared 1.8 million meals for 82 nonprofits and social service
agencies across the District.
NIFA’s mission is to invest in and advance
agricultural research, education, and extension to solve societal challenges.
NIFA’s investments in transformative science directly support the long-term
prosperity and global preeminence of U.S. agriculture. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural sciences, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/Impacts, sign up for updates, and follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAImpacts.
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