Deadline: 15-Jun-23
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), under the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP), is soliciting proposals in fiscal year (FY) 2023 from eligible applicants to host a Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) pilot project.
The purpose of the CFWR program is to enter into cooperative agreements with eligible entities to develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans. Proposed projects can be located in all community types including rural, urban and suburban.
Purpose
The purpose of the CFWR program is to enter into cooperative agreements with eligible entities to develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans. Proposed projects can be located in all community types including rural, urban and suburban.
Objectives
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 below (inclusion of multiple objectives will be considered when ranking proposals), OUAIP will accept proposals that address at least one of the following:
- Food Waste Reduction Objectives
- Reduce municipal food and waste
- Divert residential and commercial food waste from landfills
- Composting and Conservation Objectives
- Generate compost
- Increase access to compost for agricultural producers
- Reduce reliance on, and limit the use of, fertilizer
- Improve soil quality
- Encourage waste management and permaculture business development
- Increase rainwater absorption
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $9,500,000
- Award Ceiling: $400,000
- Award Floor: $55,000
Eligible Projects
- 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 historically 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 mostpreferred food waste recovery activities as described in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Food Recovery Hierarchy starting with the preferred source reduction, feeding hungry people, feeding animals, industrial uses, and composting. Activities may include, but are not limited to, food gleaning, storage, and preservation techniques, feeding food scraps to animals, and use of wasted food to create biofuel or bioproducts;
- 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; and
- Provide a detailed plan for project monitoring, evaluation and documentation of insights and solutions to obstacles encountered during the course of the project.
- Applicants should refer to the Merit/Technical Criteria section of this announcement for a complete description of evaluation and scoring criteria for proposals.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants and proposals must meet eligibility criteria by the proposal 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. 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) State designated Indian Tribes should select “Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments) when completing the.
- Municipal Government should select “Other” and enter “municipal government” when completing the.
- Applicants located 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) are eligible.
For more information, visit USDA.