Grant Program Regional Food Systems

To build a stronger regional food system by connecting New England farms and food producers to institutional purchasers through cross-state collaboration and infrastructure development.

To extend New Hampshire Community Loan Funds expertise in finance and business development to farm and food entrepreneurs, investors, and intermediaries in New Hampshire and across New England, with special emphasis on building farm-to-institution channels; and to increase New Hampshires…

To shift New England college and university food purchases away from industrial agriculture towards local and sustainable sources.

To increase sales from New England farms to New England institutions; provide growers with new market opportunities and distributors with steady, transparent supply chains; and develop logistics and marketing solutions to encourage institutional customers to source more local and regional…

To enhance the capacity of the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute to coordinate and direct Food Solutions New England, which will facilitate state-level food system planning designed to build a vibrant food economy in the region, as well as…

To make strategic investments in Vermonts sustainable food systems.

To strengthen the infrastructure for New England’s food systems (e.g., food hubs and processors) by providing business planning assistance combined with access to capital for scaling up to successfully compete for contracts with institutional and other large buyers.

To pilot local produce value chain development by first establishing relationships among Maine farmers, a broadline distributor, several institutional customers, and a food service management company that lead eventually to business transactions between these parties.

To provide general support.

To form “buy local” wholesale purchase partnerships with Maine farmers and to expand direct farm-to-pantry food distributions to help eliminate hunger and poor diets for needy Maine families.