Background
Local Foods, Local Places helps communities create more livable neighborhoods by promoting local foods. The program has been supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Delta Regional Authority.
Local Foods, Local Places aims to support projects that do all of the following:
- Create livable, walkable, economically vibrant main streets and mixed-use neighborhoods.
- Boost economic opportunities for local farmers and main street businesses.
- Improve access to healthy, local food, especially among disadvantaged populations.
See the main Local Foods, Local Places page to learn about past projects.
The Local Foods, Local Places program will provide selected communities planning assistance that centers around a two-day community workshop. At the workshop, a team of experts will help community members develop an implementable action plan that promotes local food and neighborhood revitalization. Click here to see examples of action plans from past community workshops organized through this assistance. This assistance is not a grant, and the program does not provide money directly to communities.
Eligibility and Special Considerations
Eligible applicants include local governments, Indian tribes, and nonprofit institutions and organizations proposing to work in a neighborhood, town, or city of any size anywhere in the United States. We expect that many of the communities we select will be economically challenged and in the early phases of their efforts to promote local foods and community revitalization.
Special consideration will be given to applications focused on places in high-obesity counties, which are the following counties identified by CDC as having an adult obesity rate greater than or equal to 40 percent:
- Alabama: Barfour, Bibb, Bullock, Chambers, Coosa, Crenshaw, Cullman, Escambia, Greene, Lowndes, Macon, Pickens, Sumter, and Wilcox counties
- Arkansas: Chicot, Conway, Craighead, Crittenden, Desha, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Mississippi, Monroe, Ouachita, Phillips, St. Francis, Union, and Woodruff counties
- Florida: Gadsden County
- Georgia: Calhoun and Taliaferro counties
- Idaho: Minidoka County
- Indiana: Jackson and Lawrence counties
- Iowa: Cherokee and Fayette counties
- Kansas: Barton, Jackson, and Osage counties
- Kentucky: Clinton, Elliott, Letcher, Lewis, Logan, and Martin counties
- Louisiana: Bossier, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Iberville, Madison, Morehouse, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tangipahoa, Tensas, Washington, Webster, West Feliciana, and Winn parishes
- Michigan: Osceola County
- Mississippi: Adams, Amite, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Claiborne, Clay, Coahoma, Covington, Greene, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Kemper, Leflore, Lincoln, Marshall, Montgomery, Noxubee, Pike, Quitman, Sharkey, Tallahatchie, Walthall, Wayne, Winston, and Yazoo counties
- Missouri: Bollinger County
- North Carolina: Edgecombe, Halifax, Lee, and Northampton counties
- North Dakota: Rolette and Sioux counties
- Oklahoma: Le Flore, Lincoln, and Mayes counties
- Pennsylvania: Carbon County
- South Carolina: Allendale, Bamberg, Chester, Clarendon, Colleton, Laurens, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Orangeburg, and Williamsburg counties
- South Dakota: Bennett, Buffalo, Campbell, Corson, Union, and Ziebach counties
- Tennessee: Haywood, Humphreys, Lake, and Lauderdale counties
- Texas: Hidalgo County
- Virginia: Brunswick and Halifax counties
- West Virginia: Barbour, Gilmer, and Pleasants counties
- Wisconsin: Kenosha, Menominee, Racine, and Rock counties
How to Apply
Download and complete the fillable PDF form at the bottom of this page. You must use the latest version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software EXIT to save the fillable form. Please do not complete the application form in your web browser. Save the form using the file name: City State PointOfContact’sLastName LOI. For example: Washington DC Smith LOI.
Applicants must identify a point of contact who will be available for the duration of the project to lead coordination of local participation and interact with the planning assistance team. Selection for this technical assistance will be based in part on a phone interview with the point of contact and will be awarded in part based on this person’s interest and ability to lead the local team in creating and implementing an action plan. The point of contact responsibilities cannot be transferred to another person without EPA approval.
Your application should give us a clear sense of how this assistance would help you and your partners revitalize your downtown through development of your local food system. In your application, you should answer these questions:
- What is the project’s geographic scope (e.g., neighborhood, citywide)? What is the area’s demographic makeup and economic condition?
- What challenges does your community face around downtown or neighborhood revitalization?
- What actions has your community taken so far to overcome these challenges?
- How do you propose to use local foods as a strategy to help address some of these challenges?
- How would a community workshop through Local Foods, Local Places help you achieve your goals?
- What will be the environmental benefits of achieving your goals?
- What other partners will be involved in planning and implementing your action plan, such as public agencies and institutions, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, businesses, and agricultural producers? Will elected officials be supportive?
- What assurances can you make that you will implement the action plan that our technical assistance team will help you develop?
Letters of support are not required in order to be selected for the Local Foods, Local Places Program. However, some applicants might wish to strengthen their applications by having partner organizations or local elected officials submit letters verifying statements in the application or pledging to support the process and implementation of the resulting action plan. All letters of support must be emailed along with the application form by the application due date. Please send all letters of support in a single file (separate from the application form) using the file name: City State PointOfContact’sLastName LOS. For example: Washington DC Smith LOS
Do not include any additional materials (e.g., city master plan, market strategies, event flyers, etc.).
Email the completed application and optional letter(s) of support to lflp@epa.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on October 25, 2017.
We will contact all selected and non-selected communities upon completion of the review process in early 2018. Workshops in selected communities will most likely be scheduled between spring and early fall 2018.
Questions?
If you have questions about the Local Foods, Local Places Program or the application process, please read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Local Foods, Local Places. If your question is not answered there, please email lflp@epa.gov.