Healthy Food Financing Fund is accepting applications to invest in food retailers, food processors, food hubs/distributors, and climate- smart pre-production projects.
Donor Name: New Mexico Economic Development Department
State: New Mexico
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/19/2025
Size of the Grant: Not Available
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The New Mexico Healthy Food Financing Fund supports the intersection of economic development in New Mexico’s food/agricultural supply chain with increased food security for New Mexicans.
Project Priority Areas for Value Chain Investment
- Increases access to food for historically under-resourced communities.
- Addresses workforce development challenges through the creation and retention of jobs in the food and agricultural supply chain.
- Strengthens and diversifies in-state market channel access for small and mid-scale food and agricultural operations.
- Advances food safe storage/aggregation, distribution, and transportation in regional food supply chain networks.
- Supports the implementation of regenerative agricultural practices.
Project Categories
- Food Retail (e.g. grocery stores, co-operatives, mobile grocery projects, farmers’ markets)
- Processing/Value-added Products (staple foods: meat, fruit, vegetables, dairy, grain, etc.)
- Aggregation/Distribution/Transportation (e.g. food hubs, cold/dry storage)
- New Mexico Grown Production (e.g. farmers, ranchers, co-operatives, nonprofit production, hydroponic/aquaponic)
- Climate- Smart Pre-Production (e.g. regenerative soil inputs, such as compost, biochar, or microbial inoculants, specifically designed to rebuild soil organic matter, increase carbon sequestration, and improve water retention, innovative water irrigation systems, solar systems, etc.)
Eligible Costs
- Predevelopment: business plans, market analysis, site plans, architectural/engineering designs, feasibility study, etc.
- Brick and mortar facility development: construction, renovations, property improvements
- Capital needs (e.g. equipment, supplies, furnishings, tech)
- Other costs may be incorporated into proposals for marketing, website, business process upgrades, training/certifications
- Research & Development (for climate-smart pre-production ONLY)
Eligibility Criteria
- Political subdivisions of the state,
- Indian nations, tribes and pueblos
- For-profit business enterprises (including a corporation, limited liability company, sole proprietor, public benefit corporation, social enterprise)
- Cooperatively owned businesses
- Tax-exempt nonprofit corporations
- Small farmers/ranchers with gross cash farm income under $250,000 are eligible.
- Educational institutions (including universities, colleges, and schools)
Requirements
HFFF encourages applications that demonstrate:
- Sustainability: Project applications that request assistance to facilitate the implementation of an economically sustainable project, i.e. NOT primarily dependent on uncommitted sources of revenue, after the grant period is over.
- Community Involvement: Project applications with diverse and relevant partnerships and collaborations where the project design and operation plan reflects the inclusion of stakeholder communities.
- Innovation: Project applications that aim to test, scale, and/or demonstrate new, emerging, outside the box, creative and/or alternative approaches to addressing food retail access challenges.
- Replicability: Project applications that include approaches to preserving or expanding access to food retail that might be replicated or scaled in other communities.
- Project Readiness: Project applications must demonstrate a well-thought-out, shovelready plan that is ready for implementation. Shovel-ready means all required permits, licenses, zoning approvals, and other regulatory clearances are already secured at the time of application. Projects that are still conceptual, awaiting approvals, or in early design/development stages will NOT be considered eligible.
For more information, visit EDD.
