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Farm to Community Food Hubs Grant Program

CA Department of Food and Agriculture · 95324

Eligibility details

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.

Matching funds & resources

Source matching-funds field: Not Required.

Matching funds and leveraged resources are different requirements. Read the description and reviewed rules below before determining resource commitments.

About this opportunity

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 Funding Tracks 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.

Funding geography: Applicants must be based and operating in California. Projects must only purchase and sell California grown or produced food.

Funding instrument: Grant. Issuing jurisdiction: California. This is not a geographic eligibility determination.