The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced plans to purchase U.S. grown wheat, rice, sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, vegetable oil, cornmeal, navy beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans for use in international food aid programs. Purchases will be made under the authority of Section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) proposes sub-awarding $3,136,073 to the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF) to create a collaborative network to focus on procuring food from local, small, and socially disadvantaged farmers & producers and distributing those farm products to Nebraskans who are underserved by traditional food distribution networks. This three-year project is designed to help small and socially disadvantaged producers sustainably grow their operations by creating predictable market demand during this economically turbulent time.

With the original LFPA funds awarded Montana Department of Agriculture is sub awarding funds to organizations statewide. In the last quarter the department created and released the RFP throughout the state. The response was incredible with 16 applications totaling 2.4 million in asks. With the addition of the CCC funding, the department would be able to fully fund 10 of those applications, instead of a possible 4 with just the LFPA funding. 

The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) will contract with 14 Community Partnerships in Missouri to administer the LFPA and LFPA+ grants. The Partnerships administer or provide a multitude of community programs, such as homeless shelters, employment and training programs for low-income persons, mentoring programs, parenting programs, adolescent programs, elderly and disabled resources, and others. 

The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC) is partnering with the three Feeding America affiliated food banks that together service all 82 counties in the state of Mississippi. MDAC has subcontracted with each of the Food Banks to procure locally produced food, including foods purchased from socially disadvantaged farmers, and distribute the food to identified underserved communities through their networks of existing and new agency partners created as a result of the project.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) plans to use Local Food Purchase Agreement (LFPA) and LFPA Plus funds to support a program that allows communities to determine for themselves how local food can be procured and distributed to underserved individuals. The addition of LFPA Plus funding extends the initial proposed reach and timeline for the program, significantly increasing the economic investment for the state and bolstering the ability to build relationships and capacity among community members and the agency.

This summary accounts for how additional estimated LFPA Plus funding would bring all Michigan grant subagencies to full funding and increase funds used for additional food purchases.

MDAR seeks to continue the purchase and distribution of locally grown, produced, and processed food from socially disadvantaged farmers, producers, and businesses to address injustices inherent in the current food system. Currently, the MDAR LFPA program has executed contracts with Massachusetts organizations focused on the purchase and distribution of local goods and has systems in place to identify and partner with socially disadvantaged farmers to maximize the amount of goods purchased from these producers.

Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) will use LFPA-Plus funds to expand work begun under the first round of this Cooperative Agreement. MDA will contract with the Maryland Food Bank and the Capital Area Food Bank to strengthen the state’s food system resiliency. MDA will continue to support local and socially disadvantaged farmers through building their economic opportunities. MDA will also continue to broaden partnerships with seafood companies, watermen, farmers, and food distributors to provide food to those in need in the State.

Maine Food for Maine People is a Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) project that will expand marketing opportunities for historically marginalized agricultural producers and aggregators. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) will collaborate with one subrecipient, Good Shepherd Food Bank (GSFB), and other partners on the expansion of Maine’s LFPA program.