ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) is accepting applications for the current round of its Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program.
This program is designed to support the development of local food aggregation infrastructure in Maryland to help meet current and future wholesale and institutional market demand for locally produced food products. For Fiscal Year 2022, MARBIDCO has approximately $740,000 available to fund such projects.
Created by the Maryland General Assembly in 2020, MARBIDCO’s grant program is designed to support a new procurement goal for State agencies and universities to purchase at least 20% of their food from Maryland Certified Local Farm Enterprises. Certified Local Farm Enterprises are farms that adhere to Maryland’s nutrient management requirements and opt to be included on a list that is maintained by the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
The purpose of MARBIDCO’s Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program is to create opportunities for small farmers to sell products to wholesale and institutional markets and demonstrate how the investment of funds can help to grow and strengthen Maryland’s local food system. The grants will be used to fund projects that help small farmers aggregate their products to sell to the institutional or wholesale buyer and for projects that will help institutional buyers increase their capacity to purchase locally grown food.
Farm products can include fresh food as well as food that has been preserved for out-of-season consumption. It is anticipated that funds will be used to provide financial support to both small-scale and large-scale aggregation projects.
Grants of between $25,000 and $100,000 are available for small-scale farmer-led aggregation projects that include at least three Maryland Certified Local Farm Enterprise farmers. Grants of between $150,000 and $350,000 are available for public-sector aggregation projects that plan to engage with at least three Maryland Certified Local Farm Enterprise farmers to purchase locally grown food or facilitate the sale from those farmers to public institutions. (Public institutions can include county governments, municipalities, community colleges, universities, county school systems or rural regional councils). All projects will require at least a 10% match.
The application deadline for the Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program is February 11, 2022. There are separate application forms this year for small-scale farmer-led aggregation projects and larger public-sector-led aggregation projects. Persons interested in applying to this program are encouraged to go to the MARBIDCO website for more details and to access these application forms.
Further information about the Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program may be obtained by contacting Stacy Kubofcik, Senior Programs Manager, at skubofcik@marbidco.org, calling (410) 267-6807, or by visiting MARBIDCO’s website at: www.marbidco.org.
–Steve McHenry, MARBIDCO