GROWING JUSTICE has announced the availability of $3.5 million in grants for community-led efforts to transform food systems through institutional sourcing practices.

GROWING JUSTICE: The Fund for Equitable Good Food Procurement is a pooled fund co-designed by funders, farmers, advocates, food suppliers, purchasers, and community partners from across the country to transform food systems through equitable good food procurement. Growing Justice envisions a future in which tribal, indigenous, black, Latin, Asian, and immigrant people engaged in food markets as suppliers, producers, distributors, workers and eaters at community-serving institutions are economically and physically thriving thanks in part to efforts by large community institutions to prioritize equitable good food procurement.

Founding funders include: The Rockefeller Foundation, Native American Agriculture Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Panta Rhea Foundation and Clif Family Foundation.

GROWING JUSTICE grants aim to support BIPOC-led and BIPOC-allied community- and community-based organizations, Tribal nations and their instrumentalities that are actively engaged in the food value chain and committed to transforming the food system through equitable good food procurement.

Equitable good food procurement is the purchasing of good food from locally- or regionally-owned, and environmentally- and economically-sustainable farms, ranches, fisheries, and food businesses that prioritize the needs of low-income communities of color and treat their workers with dignity.

Large community institutions and organizations engaged in institutional sourcing can facilitate the procurement of food in ways that support the physical or economic health of historically marginalized communities. Large institutions that seek support from GROWING JUSTICE are encouraged to enter into partnerships with BIPOC-led and BIPOC-allied community organizations, Tribal nations and their instrumentalities that are committed to serving as the project lead.

“Huge amounts of wealth were generated from enslavement and related policies that inhibited BIPOC farmers and businesses from equal access to capital, as well as the exploitation of the environment,” said a member of the GROWING JUSTICE inaugural Advisory Committee. “This was horrific and created historic trauma. We cannot fix the underlying problems without addressing the root cause of injustice.”

Food systems practitioners from urban, rural and Tribal diverse communities across the country have worked together with funders to design GROWING JUSTICE and serve on an Advisory Committee to oversee this pooled fund.  GROWING JUSTICE is supported by a diverse body of funders working across diverse demographics and geographies in the United States.

GROWING JUSTICE aims to support a wide range of activities to address community-defined priorities. This may include efforts that strengthen the effectiveness of racially diverse food suppliers, food producers, food distributors, and food hubs in local, regional, or Tribal food value chains; efforts to forge partnerships within regions and/or Tribal Nations to help small suppliers and distributors of color win contracts from large institutions; efforts to incentivize large institutions to expand markets or break down barriers for local suppliers or producers of color; efforts to develop, implement and share effective policies, practices, and partnerships across regions; and/or efforts to build agendas to advance worker dignity and rights. 

“We need to build a system where we are keeping local farms alive. We’ve lost over 82,000 farms since World War II, probably more because of challenges related to the pandemic in recent years. These are small family farms. And that’s because commercial agriculture is able to sell products at low prices. It’s hard for local businesses to compete; small farms can’t bring it in at that same price and still sustain their businesses. This fund is going to help them,” said one of the field leaders involved in designing the fund.

The grant deadline for applications for this cycle of GROWING JUSTICE funding is March 16, 2023. Grantees will be announced on May 16, 2023. Grant eligibility criteria and details are available on the GROWING JUSTICE website, where applicants can complete an eligibility quiz and access resources for technical support.

Quick Facts:

• Grant Application close date:  March 16, 2023
• Grantees announcement date:  May 16, 2023
• Application process:  complete a quick eligibility quiz to receive an invitation to apply
• URL for the application:  www.growingjusticefund.org/funding-opportunity