The Arlington County is accepting applications for its 2026 Food Security Mini-Grants.
Donor Name: Arlington County
State: Virginia
County: Arlington County (VA)
Type of Grant: Grant | Reimbursement
Deadline: 07/09/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Less than 1 Year
Details:
Funding Information
- Funding will be issued in quarterly reimbursements based on the Grantee’s eligible expenses.
- This competitive grant process will award a total of $150,000.
- Organizations may apply for a single project and the maximum grant award is $25,000.
Grant Period
October 2025 through June 30, 2026.
Uses of Fund
- A food pantry purchasing software to better track clients and usage data.
- A food pantry, meal program, or housing program purchasing reusable bags or boxes to use in delivery efforts or single-use containers to distribute rescued food.
- A nutrition education provider who will teach a nutrition curriculum with a certain population of residents.
- A small food pantry purchasing a refrigerator or freezer to be able to offer produce, dairy and/or meat to clients.
Eligible Activities
To be eligible, projects must support at least one of the following strategies of the Strategic Plan.
- Systemic Change
- Improve nutrition equity by working to eliminate, reduce, and prevent disparities in food security policies, procedures, and practices to ensure that all those in need of food assistance receive the support they need.
- Food Access
- Enhance school-based supplemental food offerings, including food pantries, in-school snacks, and weekend food support.
- Establish new charitable food distributions in neighborhoods with unmet need.
- Increase capacity to deliver charitable food to those unable to access available resources.
- Increase food rescue & redistribution operations.
- Enhance and improve existing food assistance programs serving Arlington residents.
- Outreach & Education
- Promote food assistance resources and assist residents with enrolling in programs for which they may be eligible.
- Implement a coordinated SNAP outreach campaign.
- Increase nutrition education opportunities for residents of all ages.
- Partner with resident community leaders to share information about resources in key languages and provide compensation for their work.
- Capacity Building
- Provide trauma-informed care training for staff & volunteers working with food insecure residents.
- Increase the capacity to share locally-grown produce from gardeners and farms with food pantries through expanded donation processing infrastructure.
- Collaborate with Arlington Public Schools (APS) through its forums to review existing programs and practices and address food equity.
- Informed Decision Making
- Use varied levels of engagement to encourage food assistance recipients to provide valuable feedback on programs and services.
- Collect data from food assistance organizations that provides information about usage trends and services provided.
Eligibility requirements
- Eligible organizations must be an IRS designated 501c3 organization or public institution of higher education and serve or wish to serve Arlington residents through one of the above-listed strategies outlined in the Food Security Strategic Plan.
- Organizations may be based in other jurisdictions, provided that the proposed project benefits eligible Arlington County residents. School parent teacher associations/organizations (PTAs) and faith-based organizations are eligible as long as they have the 501c3 designation.
- If applicants are faith-based organizations, projects, including outreach efforts and services, must be provided to any eligible beneficiary, regardless of religious affiliation (or lack thereof). Programs cannot be marketed exclusively to members of the sponsoring organization’s religious affiliation or denomination, and proselytizing while providing services related to this grant funding is prohibited.
For more information, visit Arlington County.
