Time Limited Grant Opportunities

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is accepting applications for the Farm to Community Food Hubs grant program.

A community food hub is an organization or business that serves as a supply chain intermediary by purchasing food products from and providing aggregation, distribution, and/or marketing services for multiple local or regional California food producers, especially those using sustainable or climate-smart agricultural practices and following state labor practices. The community food hub provides these services to strengthen the ability of its California food producer communities to reach sales markets with wholesale, retail, and/or institutional buyers and identifies the source (e.g. location where food was produced) of 100% of the food products sold.

This competitive grant program will fund community food hub projects that:

(1) Serve California food producers, such as farmers, ranchers, seafood harvesters, and California Native American Tribes, Tribal members, or Native American people using Indigenous food production practices

(2) Prioritize serving California food producers that that represent at least one of the following: operate on 500 acres or less; are cooperatively owned; are using sustainable, climate smart, or regenerative agriculture practices or production systems; socially disadvantaged food producer; veteran food producer; beginning food producer; limited resource food producer; disabled food producer

(3) Prioritize distributing California food to public institutions and nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on public schools, food banks, and other food distribution nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities in the region

(4) Cultivate financial sustainability via strategies that help cover long-term costs

Funding Tracks
Track 1 Planning has an award amount of $50,000 – $250,000 and will fund community food hub planning activities for new and existing community food hubs for up to 24 months.