Community Food Projects

Helping communities increase self-sufficiency and food security

Healthy food and food access initiatives are most successful when those communities most impacted are not only active participants, but also leaders in the transformation efforts. The Community Food Projects (CFP) competitive grants program awards grants to eligible nonprofits, tribal organizations, and food program service providers to promote self-sufficiency and increase food security in low-income communities by developing comprehensive, community-based solutions. Projects vary in scope, ranging from community gardens with market stands to marketing and consumer cooperatives, but all must involve low-income participants.

Learn More About CFP:

Program Basics: Learn more about how this program works
Eligibility: Find out who can utilize this program
The Program in Action: Read success stories from those who have used this program
How to Apply and Program Resources: Learn more about the application process and where to find more information
Program History, Funding, and Farm Bill Changes: Learn about important policy changes and funding levels provided by the Farm Bill
En español: Para más información del programa de proyectos comunitarios y alimentos, visite el sitio web de NIFA. En la esquina derecha y superior, se puede cambiar el idioma.

Program Basics

CFP is a competitive grants program that is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Grants are intended to help eligible nonprofits, tribal organizations, and food program service providers in need of a one-time infusion of federal assistance for projects that promote self-sufficiency and food security in low-income communities. These one-time grants require a dollar-for-dollar (1:1) match in resources, which can include in-kind support.

CFP grants fund projects that:

Meet the food needs of low-income individuals through food distribution, outreach to increase participation in federally assisted nutrition programs, or improve access to food as part of a comprehensive service.
Increase the self-reliance of communities to meet their own food needs.
Promote comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues.
Meet specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agricultural needs, including equipment necessary for the efficient operation of a project, planning for long-term solutions, or innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural producers and low-income consumers.

Examples of CFP projects include, but are not limited to: community food assessments, GIS analysis, community gardens with market stands, value chain projects, food hubs, farmers markets, farm-to-institution projects, and marketing and consumer cooperatives.

Eligibility

Public food program service providers, tribal organizations, and private nonprofit entities meeting the following requirements are eligible to receive a CFP grant:

Experience in the area(s) of:
- Community food work, including the provision of food to people in low-income communities and the development of new markets in low-income communities for agricultural producers, particularly small and medium-size farms.
- Job training and business development activities for food-related activities in low-income communities.
- Reducing food insecurity in the community through efforts such as distributing food, improving access to services, or coordinating services and programs.
Competency to implement a project, provide fiscal accountability, collect data, and prepare reports and other necessary documentation.
Willingness to share information with researchers, evaluators, practitioners, and other interested parties, including a plan for dissemination of results.
Agree to work with local partners to achieve at least one of the congressionally-designated hunger-free communities goals, such as having a community-based emergency food delivery network, conducting a community food insecurity assessment, participating in a federal nutrition program, developing food resources such as community gardens, farmers markets, and food cooperatives, having a community nutrition education program, and having a gleaning program, among others.

The Program in Action

Since 1996, CFP has provided nearly $100 million in grants to hundreds of local food security projects. CFP awards have funded projects in more than 400 communities in 48 states over the program’s 23-year history.

For example, CFP grants have been used to:

Perform community food assessments, create a rural community food planning team, and develop a three-year plan to improve access to healthy, local food in four targeted counties in South Dakota.
Provide training and technical assistance to individuals and groups in the South running farmers markets, promoting school gardening, establishing food policy councils, and increasing local food production.
Construct community greenhouses, offer workshops on seed saving, and expand tilling services for the White Earth Nation in northern Minnesota.

Read more about recent CFP awardees by viewing a list of previous grants:

How to Apply and Program Resources

NIFA typically releases a Request for Applications (RFA) once a year. Applicants are usually given one month to complete and submit their applications to NIFA, using the online system grants.gov. Proposals are then reviewed by panel of experts, including producers, consumers, educators, and extension specialists, and evaluated for relevance, applicant experience, and overall impact of the project.

Interested applicants can find out more about program and application requirements, future RFAs, and how to apply for funding via USDA’s CFP program page.

NIFA also actively recruits farmers, community food advocates, and non-profit leaders to serve on the Peer Review Panel for CFP. Contact the National Program Leader listed in the RFA for more details on serving on the panel, or check out our toolkit on serving as grant reviewer.

To learn more about CFP and other USDA programs that increase healthy food access, check out the following resources:

Program History, Funding, and Farm Bill Changes

CFP was established in the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act and has been reauthorized in every subsequent farm bill. The 2014 Farm Bill amended the program in several ways including: allowing “gleaners” to be eligible to receive funding, requesting that projects achieve at least one hunger-free community goal, and expanding the period of grants from 3 to 5 years.

In the 2014 Farm Bill CFP saw a sizable increase in funding – from $5 million per year to $9 million per year in mandatory funding. Unfortunately, the 2018 Farm Bill subsequently cut CFP’s funding back down to $5 million per year in mandatory funding.