The North Dakota Department of Commerce has launched the Rural Food Sustainability Grant Program, dedicated to boosting food access, sustainability, and economic development in rural communities.
Donor Name: North Dakota Department of Commerce
State: North Dakota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/13/2023
Size of the Grant:
- Component 1: Up to $20,000
- Component 2: Up to $300,000
Grant Duration: 18 months
Details:
The purpose of the rural food sustainability grant program is to support the expansion of sustainable grocery service, access to food, and/or development and expansion of food co-ops in rural areas. Food co-ops are centralized facilities or nonprofits that play a crucial role in aggregating, storing, processing, and distributing food to consumers, retailers, institutions, or other markets. This grant program aims to address specific challenges faced by rural communities related to food access, economic development, and sustainability.
Program Objectives
- Strengthen local and regional food systems by facilitating the efficient movement of healthy, quality foods within rural areas.
- Improve the quality and safety of existing grocery supply.
- Encourage partnerships and collaboration between local organizations, businesses, and government entities.
- Support innovative approaches to address unique challenges faced by rural areas in sustainable food supply and delivery.
- Foster community development and revitalization efforts in rural regions.
- Provide collaboration between food supply and community entities such as restaurants, schools or other entities which purchase grocery products which provides positive economic impacts for the community/region.
The program will be broken into two components:
- Component one will be soliciting letters of intent (LOI) from eligible entities. Awards will be made to conduct feasibility studies to assess the viability of potential projects or initiatives aimed at increasing food accessibility and sustainability in rural areas.
- Component two will award grant dollars to support the creation or expansion projects or initiatives that aim to increase food accessibility and sustainability for entities that have developed profit loss statements and backup materials to show the expansion of the project will be sustainable.
Funding Information
- Component 1: Up to $20,000 per community
- Component 2: Up to $300,000 per community
Rural shall be defined as any community or region, based on the application, with a population of less than 10,000.
Project Timeline
All projects must be completed within 18 months of award notification.
Eligibility Criteria
Nonprofits, City, County, Economic Development organization (JDA, regional Councils, EDC, CVB) and local tribal entities.
For more information, visit North Dakota Department of Commerce.
