Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op (SNFC) has partnered with California FarmLink to offer a new grant fund, called the Farmers Resilience Grant Program, for farms and ranches in the Sacramento, Calif., region. The program will focus on small farmers and ranchers seeking funds (up to $5,000) to advance the success of their businesses.
The Farmers Resilience Grant Program is designed to provide funds for infrastructure or equipment that builds farm sustainability (including regenerative practices, soil-building/carbon farming, irrigation efficiency, and/or first-time organic certification); professional services for business resilience, such as bookkeepers, financial planning advisors, or legal services; and other timely needs to help farmers and ranchers succeed.
The program began to take shape when FarmLink reached out to the co-op in late 2020 to discuss ideas. SNFC already had a program called “One Farm at a Time” that was created to fundraise for farms to purchase easements.
“We knew that, eventually, we would like to continue with some sort of farm support program,” SNFC Marketing Manager Stacie Larkin said. “Even prior to that program, the co-op had a register donation program that raised funds to help farms get organic certification, so we have quite a long history of working to raise funds to help local growers in our region.”
Over the course of several months, SNFC worked with FarmLink to flesh out the application requirements and process. Once the application process was established, they decided on a timeline, and the co-op created all the promotional materials for the program, including logo design and print and web materials. They also used their extensive mailing list to promote the program to their members and sent program information directly to ranchers and growers with whom they’ve worked in the past.
The first round of applications will close on Feb. 15, 2022, and the grant committee will make decisions by early April, at which point they will award three grants of up to $5,000 each. Larkin said that the ongoing plan is for the co-op to fundraise throughout the year to keep money available for the fund. She added that they are also working on ideas for future events that would bring the community together to meet a few of the farmers and ranchers who are grant recipients.
