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US: Growing Justice Fund for Community-led Initiatives ($25,000 to $250,000)

Deadline: 15-Nov-2024

Applications are now open for the Growing Justice Fund Grant Programme to support community-led initiatives that advance equitable food procurement.

These grants empower Tribal, Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian, and immigrant (BIPOC+) communities engaged in food markets to secure institutional contracts and gain economic viability. Through large-scale procurement opportunities with community-serving institutions—such as schools, hospitals, and elder care centers—these grants foster equitable access to food buying revenue and help build wealth in historically marginalized communities.

Focus Areas
  • Growing Justice Fund supports community organizations working in any of the following three areas:
    • Building Infrastructure for good food procurement: Support for BIPOC+ good food producers, manufacturers, aggregators, small processors, and distributors to enter the institutional market and/or expand their business with institutions. These entities should be dedicated to specific community-serving institutions.
    • Building policy action through grassroots organizing and advocacy for good food procurement: Support for community coalitions and organizations that build power to engage institutions and governments to pass policy initiatives that include commitments to good food procurement and legal parameters for an institution or jurisdiction’s good food procurement priorities.
    • Cultivating Traditional Food Pathways to build community wealth within Tribal Nations: Support for inter- and intra-Nation work, including within Tribal Nations and across Tribal Nations, to increase food production and distribution for their direct communities, as well as distribution efforts to non-Tribal institutions serving Tribal and native peoples.
Grant Types and Distinctions
  • Planning Grants
    • The Growing Justice Planning Grant is a one-time award intended to support the early stages of project development. It helps farmers, organizations, coalitions, and businesses develop comprehensive action plans for their initiatives, laying the groundwork for future implementation.
    • Key activities supported by Planning Grants include:
      • Strategic Research and Development: Funding to explore opportunities, assess needs, and identify solutions to barriers in equitable food procurement
      • Stakeholder Engagement: Support for developing key relationships critical to the project’s success.
      • Partnership Building: Resources for formal collaborations across sectors, including producers, institutions, and advocacy groups.
      • Project Planning: Assistance in creating detailed project plans, financial projections, and partnerships.
      • Organizational Development: Strengthening leadership skills, securing technical expertise, and preparing for implementation.
  • Implementation Grants
    • Implementation Grants are designed to support the full execution of projects aimed at advancing equitable food procurement and building infrastructure within the food system. These grants are available to organizations with a clear project plan and existing partnerships ready to scale their initiatives.
Funding Information
  • Planning Grants: up to $25,000
  • Implementation Grants: ranging from $50,000 to $250,000
Eligibility Criteria
  • Eligible applicants include community-led organizations, community-based organizations, Tribal Nations, or the instrumentalities of Tribal Nations, and other leaders that are:
  • Led by people of color, people from historically disinvested and discriminated communities
  • Actively engaged in a community coalition and/or partnership to advance good food purchasing practices and policies with institutions in the community
  • Actively engaged in the food value chain and
  • Committed to transforming the food system by:
    • Working together with other organizations in the food value chain or
    • Seeking to build partnerships with other organizations in the food value chain.
Ineligibility Criteria
  • Growing Justice is not currently funding the following types of organizations:
    • Organizations working on school gardens or community gardens as a source of food production
    • Organizations working with food pantries or other charitable food entities as a means of distribution
    • Projects that do not actively work to advance good food procurement through institutions or Tribal government
    • Organizations that are not registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofit or government equivalent. Eligible applicants must be recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3), government equivalent, or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity.
    • Organizations that are not based in the United States and working in food systems within the United States

For more information, visit Growing Justice.