U.S – As part of its Food Safety Outreach Program (FSOP), the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is now accepting funding applications.
Grants ranging from U.S$ 80,000 to U.S$ 550,000 are available to qualified applicants under the initiative, which will build on the national infrastructure of the National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance Competitive Grants Program.
Awardees will create and carry out food safety training, education, extension, outreach, and technical assistance projects that cater to the needs of small- to medium-sized farm owners and operators, beginning farmers, farmers from underserved socioeconomic groups, small processors, or small fresh produce merchant wholesalers.
In FY 2023, FSOP will maintain focus on the delivery of customized training to members of the target audiences by continuing to solicit Community Outreach Projects and Collaborative Education and Training Projects.
The program will also support outreach to underserved audiences by establishing grant writing skills technical assistance resource awards.
Community Outreach and Collaborative Education and Training projects will focus on but are not limited to, providing on-farm or on-site training and/or technical assistance that addresses knowledge and resource gaps for the target audiences in the areas of pre-and post-harvest water testing and sampling, soil amendments, developing supply chain programs, and/or developing food safety plans.
The program will also continue to fund projects that develop bilingual, accessible, and culturally appropriate training.
Technical Assistance – Grant Writing Skills projects, will focus on developing grant writing skills and providing resources for entities that support individuals or groups that are led by and directly interact with underserved populations including new applicants, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and MSIs to strengthen FSOP applications from these entities.
Direct requests for grant proposals will be made to local residents, including community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, food hubs, farm cooperatives, extension services, and other local groups.
Eligibility requirements include Cooperative Extension Services for a U.S. state or territory; non-government organizations and/or community-based organizations; organizations representing owners and operators of farms, small food processors, or small fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers that have a commitment to public health and expertise in administering programs that contribute to food safety; federal, state, local, or tribal agencies; an institution of higher education (as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)) or a foundation maintained by an institution of higher education; a collaboration of two or more eligible entities.
Applications must be submitted by Thursday, February 16, 2023.
On December 19, 2022, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, USDA NIFA will offer a technical assistance webinar for a request for applications (RFA).
