The Illinois Stewardship Alliance is accepting applications for its Farmers Resilience Fund Program.
Donor Name: Illinois Stewardship Alliance
State: Illinois
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 02/15/2022
Size of the Grant: $10,000
Grant Duration: 6 Months
Details:
The Alliance’s Resilience Fund helps Illinois local food producers invest in critical infrastructure to scale and adapt their businesses to improve the capacity and resilience of the local food system.
Funding Priorities
Projects must be designed to improve the capacity and diversity of the local food supply and may include, but are not limited to:
- Investments in on-farm infrastructure to increase scale, efficiency, and/or diversity of the operation.
- Investments in technology and digital infrastructure to diversify sales channels or improve access to local food products.
- Supply chain infrastructure to transport, coordinate, aggregate, and distribute farm products from multiple sources.
- Institutional or wholesale infrastructure to increase production, product packaging, or value-added processing.
- Launch, expansion, or operational improvement of cooperative or multi-farm collaboration and other mutually-owned businesses.
Funding Information
- Farms can apply individually or in collaboration for up to $10,000 for full or partial funding of a project or purchase.
- Grantees will have six months (April 15, 2022 – Oct 15, 2022) to complete their projects.
Special Consideration made for
- BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) farmers
- Women farmers
- Gender non-conforming, transgender, and non-binary farmers
- Veteran farmers
- Farmers living with a disability
- Applicants who have NOT previously been awarded a Resilience Fund Grant
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must represent an independent family farm located in Illinois that serves local Illinois markets.
- Project leaders must have at least two years of farming experience.
- Farms must demonstrate a track record of experience relevant to the successful completion of the project.
- Farms must demonstrate environmental stewardship, financial viability, and social equity in their farming operation.
- Previous Resilience Fund awardees ARE eligible to apply.
- Farms can apply individually or in collaboration with other farms and organizations.
- Applicants may submit only one application as the primary applicant but may be included as the non-primary applicants in collaborative projects.
- These funds are not intended for emergency COVID-19 relief aid or to support general operating and recurring business expenses.
For more information, visit Illinois Farmers Resilience Fund.
