The City of Phoenix is offering grants to small, food-related businesses that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 or its negative economic impacts. Applications are now open for the Food Systems Transformation Grant, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)-funded Phoenix Resilient Food System Initiative.
The Office of Environmental Programs has $800,000 available in grant funding to distribute to small businesses located within Phoenix city limits. Eligible small businesses include those who are a part of the City’s food system and play a role in the consumption, distribution, growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing or the disposal of food and food-related items.
Grants must be used to create a more resilient, sustainable, equitable, healthy, and thriving system. Examples of projects that help transform the local food system include but are not limited to:
- Advancing justice, equity, and fairness within the local food system.
- Promoting efforts to reduce the impact of the local food system on our changing climate (mitigation).
- Strengthening the resiliency of the local food system in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, various shocks, and disruptions (adaptation).
- Enhancing food security, accessibility, affordability, and healthy eating.
- Adopting new and/or expanding existing sustainable and innovative urban food production, distribution, aggregation, processing, and recycling practices.
- Developing product prototypes.
- Creating new, high-quality jobs to implement grant-funded projects.
- Improving local market options.
Small businesses are eligible to receive between $5,000 and $99,000 in grants and must use funds to complete all proposed projects within 12 months. Grant applications are due no later than March 31. Apply here to view the full details and eligibility requirements.
