Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grant Program | USDA NIFA CFP 006084

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NIFA CFP 006084

The Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grant Program is a mandatory USDA grant opportunity administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) that supports community-driven projects aimed at strengthening local food systems while directly improving food access for low-income residents. The program focuses on practical, on-the-ground efforts that do more than provide short-term relief. It is designed to fund projects that both address immediate food needs and build lasting community capacity to meet those needs over time.

A central purpose of CFP is to help meet the food needs of low-income individuals in concrete ways. This can include direct food distribution, but it also extends to community outreach that helps people enroll in or better use federally assisted nutrition programs. Another major emphasis is improving access to food as part of a broader, comprehensive set of services, meaning food access is ideally integrated with other supports or strategies rather than treated as a stand-alone activity.

The program also prioritizes increasing community self-reliance. In practice, this means funding projects that help communities become more capable of producing, sourcing, distributing, and sustaining food access locally, rather than depending only on external or temporary solutions. Alongside self-reliance, CFP encourages comprehensive responses to local food access, farm, and nutrition issues. Projects are expected to recognize that food insecurity is tied to interconnected factors such as local agricultural viability, distribution infrastructure, affordability, nutrition education, and market access, and to propose approaches that address those connections.

CFP further targets specific state, local, or neighborhood food and agricultural needs, including several concrete categories that projects may address. These include purchasing or securing equipment needed for efficient project operations, developing plans aimed at long-term solutions rather than short-lived interventions, and creating innovative marketing activities that benefit both agricultural producers and low-income consumers. The marketing focus signals support for strategies that strengthen local producer markets while also improving affordability and access for low-income households, ideally creating a mutually reinforcing relationship between farmers and the communities they serve.

Eligibility is not open-ended; applicants must meet the requirements described in Part III, A of the official Request for Applications (RFA). The listing indicates the eligible applicant category as "Others," which typically means eligibility may extend beyond standard government entities, but the controlling guidance is the RFA section referenced in the opportunity. The opportunity is categorized as a grant in the Agriculture funding activity area, with CFDA number 10.225. The specific funding opportunity number is USDA NIFA CFP 006084. The original closing date for the listed cycle was November 30, 2016, and the opportunity record was created on October 7, 2016. The public summary does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards in the provided data, so those details would need to be confirmed in the full RFA or related program materials.

• The National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Community Food Projects (CFP) Competitive Grant Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.225.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-10-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-11-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for USDA NIFA CFP 006084

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