The U.S. Department of Agriculture – U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service – NHQ – Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) is collaborating with National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through an interagency agreement for implementation of the Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Pilot Project Cooperative Agreement Program.
Donor Name: Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/04/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
The goals and objectives of this program are:
- Food Waste Reduction Objectives
- Reduce municipal food and waste
- Divert residential and commercial food waste from landfills
- Composting and Conservation Objectives
- Generate compost
- Increase agricultural producers’ access to compost
- Reduce reliance on, and limit the use of, chemical fertilizer
- Improve soil quality
- Encourage waste management and permaculture business development.
- Increase rainwater utilization (capture, infiltration, or absorption)
Priority will be given for each of the following elements that are included in a project:
- Align project proposals to address priorities on environmental justice, racial equity, climate change, investment in underserved communities, and sustainable agricultural practices. For example, keeping food waste out of and fills can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing landfill methane emissions;
- Integrate food waste reduction strategies that take into consideration the most-preferred food waste recovery activities as described in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wasted Food Scale.
- Anticipate or demonstrate economic benefits for the impacted community,
- Incorporate plans to make compost easily accessible to agricultural producers, including community gardeners, school gardens, and producers.
- Include a robust plan that describes collaboration with multiple partners.
- Provide a detailed plan for project monitoring, evaluation and documentation of insights and solutions to obstacles encountered during the course of the project.
Funding Information
- The Federal funding agency expects to award approximately $7.8 million.
- The estimated funding floor for this opportunity is $75,000, and the estimated funding ceiling is $400,000.
Project Period
Projects must be 2 years in duration.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility for this opportunity is limited to the following entity types:
- City or township governments (or other municipal governments)
- County governments
- School districts (including independent school districts)
- State-designated Indian Tribes
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Special district governments (e.g. soil and water conservation districts, regional planning districts, landfill districts, etc.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
