Farm to Food Assistance Learning Lab Application Announcement

Applications are now OPEN for the Farm to Food Assistance Learning Lab! This 12-month lab will support eight teams with financial and technical assistance to strengthen their farm to food assistance programs.

Providing a stable market for farmers while simultaneously alleviating hunger is a powerful approach to building more equitable and resilient food systems. Nationwide, organizations are creating and implementing Farm to Food Assistance (F2FA) Programs – paying farmers a fair price for their product and channeling that product into food banks, food pantries, and other anti-hunger efforts – and seeing incredible results.

To support the people making these programs work in their communities, the Food Systems Leadership Network (FSLN) is excited to launch a Learning Lab starting this summer!

The Farm to Food Assistance Learning Lab will support and learn from people working on initiatives that buy food from local farmers and make it accessible to food insecure communities, with an emphasis on racial equity and community driven solutions. Through this 12-month Lab, we will provide funding, mentorship, and peer support to folks working on these efforts, including those that are funded by USDA’s Local Food Purchasing Assistance Cooperative Agreement program (LFPA). We’ll also collaborate with you to gather and measure the impact and challenges of this strategy so we can all better tell the story of this work. If you are working on a program that aims to address food insecurity and farm viability for BIPOC producers, apply before July 10th!

Apply here!

What is a Farm to Food Assistance Program?

Farm to Food Assistance Programs are community-based solutions that pay farmers a fair market value for their product and offer healthy food free to underserved communities. This includes those funded by the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance program.

For info about F2FA programs please visit this page

Teams will receive

Peer connection via a community of organizations and people doing similar work in a confidential, supportive space
Financial assistance (up to $20k) to be used to strengthen and advance existing farm to food assistance efforts
Technical assistance in the form of dedicated advisors and monthly group calls to increase organizations’ knowledge and capacity for design, collaboration, and implementation of F2FA projects
In Person Retreat to help participants expand their network, deepen their connections and learn from their peers (Lead applicant only)

This learning lab will collectively lead to:

Strengthened relationships of teams implementing F2FA programs
Increased sustainability of F2FA projects across the country
Increased understanding of the challenges, technical assistance needs, and best practices for creating and implementing equity-driven farm to food assistance projects

Learning Lab Advisors

Read the full advisor bios here!

Alison Cohen

National Coordinator, Right to Food Community of Practice

Myra Marcellin

Financial Advisor for Small Businesses

Pakou Hang

Former Executive Director, Hmong American Farmers Association

Erin Pirro

Certified Agricultural Consultant and Ag Business Catalyst, Agribusiness ESP, LLC

Program Overview

Program and Team Structure

Lead Applicant – Completes the application and is expected to fully participate in in-person and virtual activities, and complete surveys for research on F2FA programs. Lead applicants will coordinate with their participating team members to invite them to virtual program activities when relevant.

Participating Team Members – The lead applicant can invite a team of up to 2 additional partners. Partners will receive coaching from advisors and virtual and peer learning opportunities. Partners are not required to participate in all aspects of the program however are encouraged to participate in virtual learnings. Partners won’t be attending the in-person retreat.

Expectations of lead applicant

Commit to full participation in Learning Lab activities
Attend in-person retreat in November 2023
Complete baseline and final surveys
Complete case study interviews
Present or participate in a panel during a Farm to Food Assistance Community of Practice call
Receive and manage a $20k grant from the Wallace Center

Eligibility

This learning lab is open to farm to food assistance program implementers, including those funded by USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program and those funded through other sources.
This program is open to many types of organizations including nonprofits, for-profits, faith-based organizations, mutual aid organizations, food hubs, food banks, community based organizations, state and tribal governments, and cooperatives.

Selection Criteria: Here are the criteria we will use to select from eligible applicants. These answers do not have to be polished. We are looking for applicants who are deeply committed to learning and solving problems together with their peers. Throughout your application please demonstrate how your program is:

Paying farmers fair market value for food purchases vs requesting donations
demonstrating a commitment to racial equity and centering community driven solutions
Working to create long term solutions that exist beyond short term funding streams
Willing and able to share data about their operations including number of farmers, dollars of product, and number of people served per month.
Proposing to use grant funds to help set your program and partners up for long term success

Timeline

The F2FA Learning Lab will run from August 2023 – July 2024.
May 2023: Applications open
June 6th: Informational Call at 4-5ET. Register here
July 10th 2023: Applications close and organizations selected
August 2023: Kick-off call, baseline surveys of participants
November 1-3 2023: In-person convening (Lead Applicant Only)
August 2023– May 2024: ongoing learning lab activities
June-July 2024: Project close, final surveys of participants

How to Apply

Apply here by 5pm PT on Monday July 10th! Reach out to [email protected] with any questions. To see a preview of the questions, you can view a PDF here.

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