Deadline: 4-Sep-24
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), under OUAIP, is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants to host a Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) pilot project for fiscal year (FY) 2024.
This program provides financial assistance to municipalities, school districts, counties, local governments, special district governments, tribal governments (State-designated Indian Tribes, Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Governments), or tribal organizations to carry out food waste reduction and composting objectives. While applicants are encouraged to submit proposals that meet more than one of the objectives (inclusion of multiple objectives will be considered when ranking proposals), OUAIP will accept proposals that address at least one of the aforementioned goals and objectives.
Goals and Objectives
- 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)
- Food Waste Reduction Objectives
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 landfills 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
- Estimated Funding: The Federal funding agency expects to award approximately $7.8 million through this opportunity. However, the agency retains the discretion to award a larger or lesser amount.
- The estimated funding floor for this opportunity is $75,000, and the estimated funding ceiling is $400,000.
- Start Dates and Performance Periods: Projects must be 2 years in duration. Applicants should plan their projects based on an estimated project start date of January 31, 2025.
- Number of Awards: There is no commitment by USDA to make a specific number of awards.
Responsibilities
- NRCS will have the following responsibilities:
- Connect pilot projects with other USDA agencies such as, but not limited to the Economic Research Service (ERS); National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA); the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE); and other Federal partners (e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)) to collaborate on project activities and outcomes that contribute to the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 goal.
- Coordinate and convene the CFWR pilot projectteam(s)to collaborate with other Federal Government, regional, institution, state, and local experts. This collaboration will focus on information dissemination and project strategy implementation of the objectives related to CFWR as characterized above in the project description;
- Gather project data (i.e., methods, results, and derived benefits, including data on weight of food waste diverted from landfills, data on food reclaimed for human and animal consumption, as well as data on compost created) for evaluation and dissemination to increase access to, and solutions for, composting and municipal food waste reduction across the United States.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants and applications must meet eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award. Eligible applicant type is determined by the implementing program statute. Applicant entities identified in the SAM.gov exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted, or excluded from receiving Federal contracts and certain Federal assistance and benefits will not be considered for Federal funding, as applicable to the funding being requested under this Federal program (2 CFR 200.206(d)). Neither foreign entities nor individuals are eligible to apply for this opportunity.
- 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.)
- State designated Indian Tribes should select “Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments) when completing the SF-424 block 9.
- Municipal governments other than cities or townships should select “Other” and enter “municipal government” when completing Block 9 on the SF-424.
- Proposed projects must be performed within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.