NSAC's Blog
Funding Cycle Now Open for Next Year’s Community Food Project Grants
October 14, 2015
In addition to announcing awardees for the Community Food Projects Grant Program (CFP) on October 13, the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) posted on its CFP webpage the latest Request for Application for fiscal year 2016. NIFA anticipates awarding approximately $8.64 million in grants through CFP.
The deadline for applications is 5:00pm EST on Monday, November 30, 2015.
Only electronic applications will be accepted via Grants.gov. NIFA reminds applicants that for new users to Grants.gov, the registration process can take as long as 2 weeks to complete, making it critical to begin the registration process as soon as possible. For an overview of the Grants.gov application process see this link.
For abstracts of past funded projects, please click here.
Unfortunately, NIFA did not provide either a press release or a Federal Register notice announcing the release of the CFP RFA. This marks the third consecutive year that the RFA has been released only on the NIFA webpage, making it very difficult for prospective applicants to know about the RFA unless one happened to be checking the correct webpage.
Grant Types
For this round of funding, three types of grants are available:
- Community Food Projects, examples of which include community gardens with market stands, value chain projects, food hubs, farmers’ markets, farm-to-institutions projects, and marketing and consumer cooperatives. All projects must involve low-income participants. The maximum Community Food Project award in a single year is $125,000 and the maximum award over four years is $400,000.
- Planning Projects, examples of which include community food assessments’ coordination of collaboration development, GIS analysis, food sovereignty study, and farm-to-institution exploration. All projects must involve low-income participants. The maximum Planning Project award is $35,000 for the total project period. The maximum grant period is three years.
- Training and Technical Assistance, examples of which include assistance in project development, grantsmanship training, project evaluation using “Whole Measures,” and/or assistance on a particular type of project, for example, urban farms, community gardens, direct marketing, and farm-to-institution methods. Examples of activities to provide training and technical assistance include workshop training, peer to peer interaction, one on one training, assistance with evaluation/Whole Measures, webinars, and/or video-conferencing. The maximum award in this category is $250,000 in any single year. NIFA anticipates giving one award for $500,000 over a two to four year period. The maximum grant period is four years.
Both Community Food Projects and Planning Projects must provide a dollar-for-dollar match for all federal funds awarded, and may provide the match through cash and/or in-kind contributions, including third-party in-kind contributions. Non-federal funding matches may come from state government, local government, other non-profit entities, or private sources, but not other federal sources.
Community Food Projects: An Overview
Initiated in 1996, CFP is a competitive grant program supporting the alleviation of food insecurity in low-income communities through projects which:
- Increase community self-reliance in meeting their own food needs;
- Encourage comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues;
- Meet food needs through food distribution, community outreach to assist in participation in Federally assisted nutrition programs, or improving access to food as part of a comprehensive service; and
- Meet specific state, local or neighborhood food and agricultural needs including needs relating to equipment necessary for the efficient operation of a project, planning for long-term solutions, or the creation of innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural producers and low-income consumers.
Eligible entities include public food program service providers, tribal organizations, or private nonprofit entities, including gleaners, meeting specific requirements as set out in the RFA.
Among other requirements, applicants must have experience in one or more of the following areas:
- community food work, particularly concerning small and mid-sized farms, including the provision of food to low-income communities and the development of new markets in low income communities for agricultural producers,
- job training and business development experience for food related activities in low-income communities, or
- efforts to reduce food insecurity in the community, including food distribution, improving access to services, or coordinating services and programs.
The RFA also states that applicants should collaborate with 1 or more local partner organizations to achieve at least 1 hunger-free communities goal.
Webinar
NIFA has announced a webinar for potential applicants to take place next Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To connect to the webinar, click on the following link: http://nifa-connect.nifa.usda.gov/cfp2016/
Technical Assistance
Additionally, the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, an initiative of Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and other partners and based in Lowell, Massachusetts, is providing free one-on-one technical assistance, educational resources, and professional development opportunities for applicants to CFP. Please see this webpage for more information.
Stakeholder Input on Request for Application
USDA also seeks stakeholder comments about this RFA to consider in developing the next Community Food Projects RFA. Comments can be submitted via e-mail to: Policy@nifa.usda.gov. Comments should state that you are responding to the Community Food Projects RFA. The deadline to submit comments is Monday, April 4, 2016.
Categories: Farm Bill, Grants and Programs, Local & Regional Food Systems, Nutrition & Food Access
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