Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program Announced – Due July 18, 2017
The Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program will provide funds to support expanding existing or establishing new food waste prevention and/or rescue projects (source reduction or food rescue for people) in California to reduce the amount of food being disposed in landfills. The investment will result in reduced methane emissions from landfills; benefit disadvantaged communities; feed people in need; and create jobs.
Funding Levels: $5 million is available in funding
- Large Project Tier: $100,001-$500,000 ($4 million allocation)
- Small Project Tier: $25,000-$100,000 ($1 million allocation)
Eligibility: Eligible applicants may submit an individual, cooperative, or regional application.
Eligible applicants include:
- Local governments (cities, counties, regional or local sanitation agencies, waste agencies or Joint Powers Authorities)
- Nonprofit organizations
- Private for-profit entities
- State or federal agencies (including offices, department, bureaus and boards)
- UC, CSU or California Community Colleges
- Solid Waste Facilities
- Public School Districts
- Qualifying Indian Tribe
Eligible projects include:
- Food waste prevention projects that prevent food waste from being generated and becoming waste normally destined for landfills, with any food waste residuals from the project being sent to composting or digestion when available within the project service area.
- Food rescue projects that result in rescued food being distributed to people, with any food waste residuals from the project being sent to composting or digestion when available within the project service area.
Eligible costs include:
- Refrigerators, freezers, and refrigeration systems
- Transportation such as refrigerated trucks
- Storage and collection infrastructure such as food crates or bins
- Food preparation and cooking items such as ovens, ranges, etc.
- Salaries, public education, and/or outreach costs (cannot exceed 25 percent of requested grant amount for large tier projects and 50 percent for small tier projects)
- Software costs (food waste online exchange and source reduction platforms) (cannot exceed 10 percent of the applicant’s requested grant amount for large tier projects and 25 percent for small tier projects)
Project Requirements: Projects must be located in California and result in permanent, annual, and measurable:
- Reductions in GHG emissions attributed to the production, processing, packaging, distribution, and landfilling of California-generated food materials; and,
- Increases in quantity (tons) of California-generated food materials, newly diverted from landfill and prevented or rescue from disposal.
Match: While there is no match required, non-governmental applicants must have working capital equal to or greater than the quarterly annual cost of the project.
Grants will be awarded in October of November of 2017. The Grant Term ends on April 1, 2020.
The full Request for Application can be found here.
For more information on this grant or how to apply with Morrison's assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530.893.4764.