The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (“DMPED”) is soliciting grant applications from qualified private financial organizations to serve as the program administrator (“Program Administrator”) for the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Fund (“Fund”).
Donor Name: Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED)
State: District of Columbia
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/15/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The purpose of the Fund is to support and administer coordinated initiatives to build resilience across the middle-of-the-food-supply-chain and strengthen local and regional food systems by creating new revenue streams for District businesses. The Program Administrator will work with DMPED to implement the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Resilient Food System Infrastructure Grant Program (“RFSI Program”) in accordance with the District’s State Plan (pending approval from the USDA).
This Fund is especially necessary in the District, where food system infrastructure has been identified as critical. In 2023 a District partner for the Nourish DC Fund, Capital Impact Partners, ran a $430,000 grant program to support cold storage infrastructure and received $12.6 million in requests. Prior District studies, including the Food Economy Study, have identified leakage, due to a lack of co-packing and co-manufacturing facilities and high rental prices, to Virginia and Maryland, as businesses grow and generate greater revenue and jobs. Additionally, there are several distributors in the District focused on aggregating products from local growers who identified a need for investment in space to expand their distribution to institutional buyers and individual customers. Currently, these businesses are seeking space to build facilities or operate from mobile locations. The lack of these facilities inhibits the growth of District food businesses and nonprofits and limits their ability to combat food waste and increase local food access.
Funding Information
- The federal minimum award amount for infrastructure grants is $100,000.
- The federal award range for equipment-only grants is $10,000 – $100,000.
Eligible Activities
Businesses and organizations that are eligible for funding must be domestically owned, based in the District, and fall under one of the following categories:
- Agricultural producers or processors, or groups of agricultural producers and processors.
- Nonprofit organizations operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products.
- For-profit entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, or distribution of targeted agricultural products, whose activities are primarily focused for the benefit of local and regional producers, and that meet the eligibility requirements for the SBA small business size standards.
- Tribal governments operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.
- Institutions such as schools, universities, or hospitals bringing producers together to establish cooperative or shared infrastructure or investing in equipment that will benefit multiple producers middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.
Eligible Projects
Eligible Projects DMPED anticipates that the following types of activities would be eligible for the grants and technical assistance disbursed by the Fund (not an exhaustive list). For all of these activities, forprofit, non-profit, or social enterprises are eligible business structures:
- Expanding processing capacities, including adding product types, increasing production volumes, and supporting new wholesale/retail product lines;
- Modernizing equipment or facilities through upgrades, repairs, or retooling; (e.g., adapting product lines for institutional procurement or adding parallel processing capacity);
- Purchase and installation of specialized equipment, such as processing components, sorting equipment, packing and labeling equipment, or delivery vehicles;
- Modernizing manufacturing, tracking, storage, and information technology systems;
- Enhancing worker safety through adoption of new technologies or investment in equipment or facility improvements;
- Construction of a new facility;
- Increasing packaging and labeling capacities that meet compliance requirements under applicable laws (e.g. sealing, bagging, boxing, labeling, conveying, and product moving equipment);
- Increasing storage space, including cold storage;
- Modernize equipment or facilities to ensure food safety, including associated Hazard, Analysis, and Critical Control Points (HACCP) consultation, plan development and employee training; and
- Training on the use of all equipment purchased under the grant and associated new processes.
Eligible Applicants
DMPED invites applications from Program Administrators with expertise in investing in small and medium food businesses and success in strengthening local food systems. Applications should show that the Program Administrator is capable of structuring, administering, funding, and managing a fund in Washington, DC.
For more information, visit DMPED.
