The primary goals of the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program (CFPCGP) are to:

• Meet the food needs of low-income individuals;
• Increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for the food needs of the communities;
• Promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues; and
• Meet specific State, local or neighborhood food and agricultural needs including needs relating to:
  • Infrastructure improvement and development;
  • Planning for long-term solutions; or
  • The creation of innovative marketing activities that mutually benefit agricultural producers and low-income consumers.

Community Food Projects are intended to bring together stakeholders from the distinct parts of the food system and to foster understanding of national food security trends and how they might improve local food systems. In FY 2010, CSREES’ CFPCGP intends to solicit applications and fund two types of grants. The types are entitled (1) Community Food Projects (CFP) applications and (2) Planning Project (PP) applications. Only private, nonprofit entities meeting specific requirements as listed in the Request for Applications are eligible. Applicants with CFP and PP proposals are encouraged to seek and create partnerships with public or private, nonprofit or for-profit entities, including links with academic institutions (including minority-serving colleges and universities), and/or other appropriate professionals, community-based organizations, and local government entities. Only the applicant must meet the eligibility requirements. Project partners and collaborators need not meet the eligibility requirements.

January 15, 2010

Communities and their residents in the United States experience droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions as well as accidents at facilities that handle dangerous materials such as explosive chemicals. These phenomena will continue, but their consequences need not be disastrous if communities and people reduce their vulnerabilities and increase their resilience. There is much research on vulnerability and resilience in urban communities, but much less about how rural communities and their residents are responding to natural and man-made hazards. The long term goal of this program is to advance basic research in engineering and in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences on enhancing disaster resilience in rural communities.