Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Grants

Sandra Blackwell
sblackwell@uga.edu

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Community Foods Project is offering funding for projects and technical assistance aimed at reducing food loss and reducing food waste; getting surplus wholesome food to individuals; and developing linkages between food producers, providers, and food recovery organizations. Projects should prioritize the first three, most preferred food recovery methods on the EPA Wasted Food Scale: “Prevent Wasted Food,” “Donate or Upcycle,” and “Feed Animals.”

The program's overarching goal is to create pathways to strengthen food rescue and get surplus food to feed those experiencing food and nutrition insecurity; reduce food loss and food waste, such as by gleaning surplus produce on the farm or finding new outlets for uneaten food to bolster supply chain resiliency or improve human and animal nutrition.

Program goals:

• Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs
• Promote comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues
• Identify strategies for reducing food loss and waste by identifying value-added production opportunities
• Meet specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agriculture needs for planning for long-term solutions
• Create innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural stakeholders and consumers
• Describe how the research or training and technical assistance will lead to improved quality of life for producers, communities and consumers

Goals may be achieved through:

• Recovering food and preventing food loss that occurs on the farm during harvest, storage, transportation, processing; waste in retail and food service establishments; in schools; in households/consumers; and through other miscellaneous activities
• Developing linkages between food recovery organizations (such as gleaners), food producers, farmers, processors, and providers, and other stakeholders

Projects should utilize a comprehensive approach to these or other related issues through activities that must include one or more of the following:

• Technical training for stakeholders and people who work with stakeholders on food loss and food waste
• Regulatory assistance, data collection and analysis
• Development of educational resources for food loss and waste reductions
• Applied research to identify baseline for food loss and waste reductions
• Exploring new technologies for reducing food waste and defining best practices associated with food system operations

Entities whose goals and activities are centered on reducing food loss and waste are invited to apply.

This can include, but is not limited to:

• Tribal organizations
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• Community organizations
• Gleaning and food recovery organizations
• Public food program service providers
• Academic institutions
  • 1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grants
  • Hispanic-Serving Institutions
  • Other colleges/universities

Applications from organizations that address food insecurity in rural, tribal, and underserved communities are encouraged.

Communities that will benefit from Food Loss and Waste Training and Technical Assistance Grant activities include:

• Farmers and ranchers
• Youth, tribal, and community organizations
• Higher education organizations
• Non-governmental organizations
• Other stakeholders

Award ceiling: $1,000,000
Expected grant size: $500,000 per SARE region
Project period: 3 years
Estimated number of awards: 2-4
Estimated total program funding: $8,000,000

A link to the application instructions is available on the program website.

Submit completed applications through the online grant management system.