Local Food Systems Grants in California (Seed Grants for Food Justice Projects)

Local Food Systems Grants in California (Seed Grants for Food Justice Projects) is sponsored by Various, facilitated by Giboo. This program prioritizes initiatives addressing racial inequities in food systems, rematriation and land ownership for BIPOC, workers' rights, gender equity, health equity, and climate change. It promotes agroecological practices, solidarity economies, and farm/food cooperatives.

Farm to Community Food Hubs Grant Program - California Grants Portal Funding planning and food aggregation and distribution infrastructure for community food hubs to increase purchasing of local, environmentally sustainable, climate smart, and equitably produced food by schools and other institutions to build a better food system economy, support the local farming and Indigenous food production economies, accelerate climate adaptation, and employ food system workers with fair wages and working conditions.

CDFA's Farm to Community Food Hubs Program has up to $13. 75 million available to award in competitive grants for organizations developing and expanding community food hubs in California. The program will prioritize funding the creation of new community food hubs.

Up to ten percent of the funding will be set aside for California Native American Tribes and Tribal-led nonprofit organizations.

A community food hub is an organization or business that serves as a supply chain intermediary by purchasing food products from and providing aggregation, distribution, and/or marketing services for multiple local or regional California food producers, especially those using sustainable or climate-smart agricultural practices and following state labor practices.

The community food hub provides these services to strengthen the ability of its California food producer communities to reach sales markets with wholesale, retail, and/or institutional buyers and identifies the source (e.g. location where food was produced) of 100% of the food products sold.

This competitive grant program will fund community food hub projects that: (1) Serve California food producers, such as farmers, ranchers, seafood harvesters, and California Native American Tribes, Tribal members, or Native American people using Indigenous food production practices (2) Prioritize serving California food producers that that represent at least one of the following: operate on 500 acres or less; are cooperatively owned; are using sustainable, climate smart, or regenerative agriculture practices or production systems; socially disadvantaged food producer; veteran food producer; beginning food producer; limited resource food producer; disabled food producer (3) Prioritize distributing California food to public institutions and nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on public schools, food banks, and other food distribution nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities in the region.

(4) Cultivate financial sustainability via strategies that help cover long-term costs Track 1 Planning has an award amount of $50,000 - $250,000 and will fund community food hub planning activities for new and existing community food hubs for up to 24 months.

Track 2 Infrastructure and Operations has an award amount of $350,000 - $2,000,000 and will fund infrastructure and operational costs for new and existing community food hub operations for 60 months. There is no matching requirement. Grant funds cannot be used for donations of any kind, including food.

Eligible entities include federally and non-federally recognized California Native American Tribes and Tribal-led nonprofits. Eligible public agencies include public school districts, Tribal schools, Tribal colleges, County Offices of Education, public institutions of higher education, and Resource Conservation Districts.

Food hubs that had an average annual gross income greater than $5 million the past three-year period are not eligible to apply. Applicants must be based and operating in California. Projects must only purchase and sell California grown or produced food.

The date (and time, where applicable) by which all applications must be submitted to the grantmaker. Time listed as “00:00” equates to midnight. Expected award announcement The date on which the grantor expects to announce the recipient(s) of the grant.

The length of time during which the grant money must be utilized. Total estimated available funding The total projected dollar amount of the grant. Expected number of awards A single grant opportunity may represent one or many awards.

Some grantors may know in advance the exact number of awards to be given. Others may indicate a range. Some may wish to and wait until the application period closes before determining how many awards to offer; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display.

Estimated amount per award Grant opportunities representing multiple awards may offer awards in the same amount or in varied amounts. Some may wish to wait until the application period closes before determining per-award amounts; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display. Letter of Intent Required?

Certain grants require that the recipient(s) provide a letter of intent. Requires Matched Funding? Certain grants require that the recipient(s) be able to fully or partially match the grant award amount with another funding source.

The funding source allocated to fund the grant. It may be either State or Federal (or a combination of both), and be tied to a specific piece of legislation, a proposition, or a bond number. One-time funding from California's General Fund.

The manner in which the grant funding will be delivered to the awardee. Funding methods include reimbursements (where the recipient spends out-of-pocket and is reimbursed by the grantor) and advances (where the recipient spends received grant funds directly). Advances & Reimbursement(s) If eligible and approved for advance payments, recipients must follow the Advance Payment regulations.

State agencies/departments recommend you read the full grant guidelines before applying. For questions about this grant, contact: Christina Harrington, 1-916-539-6017, cafoodhubs@cdfa. ca.

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