New USDA Office Issues First Ever Grant Awards Promoting Urban Agriculture
We’ll take a step back from our ongoing coverage of major documents released by the Office of Management and Budget — namely the uniform guidance revisions and the 2020 Compliance Supplement — to turn our attention to something more summerlike — nature!
The 2018 Farm Bill (i.e., the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 115-334) created a new Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This new office includes representatives from many USDA agencies, including Farm Service Agency and Agricultural Marketing Service, and is led by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. It supports urban agriculture and aims to “encourage and promote urban, indoor and other emerging agricultural practices, including community composting and food waste reduction.”
Yesterday, this new office issued its first ever grants and cooperative agreements, providing about $4.1 million under two programs.
About $3 million of the funds were issued under the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Competitive Grants program. This program supports various activities through a wide range of activities through two grant types — planning projects and implementation projects. Activities include operating community gardens and nonprofit farms, increasing food production and access in economically distressed communities, providing job training and education, and developing business plans and zoning. The office gave specific priority to projects located in or targeting an Opportunity Zone, which is a census tract designation for low-income communities. Awards were made to recipients in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Vermont.
In addition, about $1.09 million was awarded to 13 pilot projects under the Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction Projects program. Recipients will develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction. The office prioritized projects that anticipate or demonstrate economic benefits, incorporate plans to make compost easily accessible to farmers, including community gardeners, integrate other food waste strategies, including food recovery efforts, and collaborate with multiple partners. Recipients were Anchorage, Alaska; Fayetteville, Ark.; Prescott, Ariz.; Boulder County, Colo.; New Haven, Conn.; Gainesville, Fla.; Lake County, Ill.; Douglas County, Kan.; Paterson, N.J.; New York, N.Y.; Henderson County, N.C.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Prince William County, Va.
We look forward to the progress made by these new award recipients. In these troubled times across the country, particularly in our nation’s cities, we all could all step back and take in some nature.
Join us for our following Federal Grants Forums:
Nonprofit Finance & Grants Summit | September 14-16, 2020
Federal Grants Forum: Denver, CO | October 7-9, 2020
