The Columbia Basin Trust’s Food Access and Recovery Grants is now open for applications to support community-led projects that increase access to affordable, quality, local food, with particular emphasis on supporting vulnerable populations.
This includes projects that support creating or enhancing communal growing/processing spaces and diverting food that would otherwise be wasted.
Funding Information
Up to 85 per cent of total project costs can be requested from the Trust. There is no maximum amount for grant requests; however, they anticipate that many successful projects will be in the range of up to $80,000.
Types of Projects Eligible
Capital purchases to support Food Access and Recovery Projects in one of the following Project Categories:
Developing new or enhancing existing local, community growing spaces for use by members of the public (e.g., community garden spaces, chicken coops, noncommercial greenhouses, egg incubators, seed bank/distribution, rooftop gardens, vertical farming, etc.);
Creating opportunities for traditional teaching techniques to protect cultural practices; (e.g., traditional plant knowledge or wild meat processing techniques);
Redistributing local and, where applicable, non-local food waste (e.g. from a landfill, grocery stores, community fruit trees or garden or local farm or orchard) to individuals, families, and/or community agencies that serve vulnerable populations (e.g. food bank, community kitchen);
Integrating improved technology to create efficiencies in, or expand upon, existing community-led food production and/or recovery; and
Upgrading infrastructure to improve operations of existing, community-led food production and/or recovery.
Note: Improvements to physical infrastructure are only eligible if they occur on non-profit, local government or First Nations land with established long-term use/operating agreements (minimum three years) and partnerships.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants include registered non-profits, local governments and First Nations in the Columbia Basin Trust region.
Applicants operating outside the Basin must partner with community-based organizations operating within the region and must show that the project benefits residents of the Basin.
These grants are not intended to support the commercial production of food.
