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!
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
This learning lab will collectively lead to:
Learning Lab Advisors
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
Eligibility
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:
Timeline
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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