Grant Program Food Systems

To plan for making New England the first discrete regional focus within the national Healthier Hospitals Initiative.

To develop a regionally scaled agriculture model that gives farmers Maine farmer access to more customers for their products, especially in the institutional market, and supports their scaling up to meet those customers’ demands.

To provide general support.

To develop the framework and partnerships necessary to scale the Close the Loop composting model to a statewide program that builds the infrastructure and collection systems needed to convert all of Vermont’s food waste to an agricultural resource by 2017.

To educate federal policymakers about the value of regulatory support for and financial investment in sustaining New England agriculture.

To determine if a credit union can viably fill the financing gap facing small, local and sustainably managed farms in the Northeast.

To recruit students to its diversified farming curriculum; and to integrate the college’s farm products into the Vermont State College food service system.

To provide grants support to Vermont farms of any size that have sustained losses in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

To further develop a locally-based, sustainable food system by piloting a farm-to-institution program in the town of Hardwick that uses local food sources and implementing region-appropriate infrastructure development.

To enable Farm-to-Institution New England to build a stronger regional food system by connecting New England farms to its institutions through cross-state collaboration and infrastructure development.