Informational Webinar: Recording Passcode: HC%weYi5

Application deadline: January 15, 2025

Funding awards announced: February 2025

Project timeline: Projects are expected to start by March 2025 and to be completed by December 1, 2025 to allow time for reporting.

Award amounts: While grant amounts will vary depending on the scope of each project, applicants can generally expect awards to range between $5,000 and $20,000. For projects with exceptional potential and need, larger awards may be considered if well-justified. Funds will be awarded in a lump sum at the beginning of the project period.

Funding decisions will be determined by a team of reviewers from KSRE, KSU Office of Engagement, Kansas Health Foundation, and Hunger Free Kansas.

Other expectations:

• Awarded projects are expected to send one person to a one-day training in Wichita during the grant period. Expenses for this training can be included in the grant budget.
• Awarded projects are strongly encouraged to send one person to the 2025 Kansas Local Food Summit in Salina. Expenses for this event can be included in the grant budget.

This application is open to K-State Research and Extension County and District offices. More than one office may consider collaborating. Interested non-Extension partners are encouraged to work with their local office on an application, as partnership is a critical component of success.

Find your local extension office.

Projects should include the following elements:

1. Enhance collaboration with a KSU affiliated member (faculty, staff, specialists, etc.).
2. Enhance collaboration with local community partners, especially partners already working in anti-hunger, food security, or food systems. Some examples might include: community foundations, local health and wellness coalitions, healthy equity action teams, Network KS e-community liaison, rural champions, etc.
3. Advance policy, systems, and environmental change.
4. Fit into one of four categories of work identified by Hunger Free Kansas:
   1. Cross-Sector Learning: Lack of shared understanding, shared vision and shared momentum between the private, nonprofit and government sectors.
   2. School-based Nutrition Programs: Opportunities to work with schools to maximize funding and nutrition programs
   3. Alternative Food Systems: Addressing gaps in access, production, processing, distribution, food recovery, or household food preparation
   4. Social Services Access: The need to connect charitable food efforts to other social services and safety nets in a community, including SNAP/WIC/Kansas Senior Farmers Market benefit enrollment, food pantry access, community meals.

Funding priority may be given to applications that demonstrate:

1. 1. Intentional Policy, Systems, and Environment (PSE) change to improve health and food access in a community.
   2. Focus on an population of particular need in your community based on data sources or community conversations.
   3. Catalyzation of additional resources towards the work.

The project idea doesn't have to be a proven concept, but the work needs to be realistic and feasible. Experimentation, innovation and continuous improvement are encouraged. Concepts can be refined through exploration and iteration.

Applications must be submitted through the Qualtrics form. Each application should include the following as uploaded files:

• A letter of support from your local unit director, Extension board, or regional director (whichever is most applicable). Letter template.
• A letter of support from a community partner (if applicable and possible.) Letter template.
• A budget outline with justification of expenses. Budget template.

PDF of Application, for planning purposes only.

Scoring Rubric

Questions? Review the Informational Webinar. Recording Passcode: HC%weYi5

1. Convene stakeholders from the nonprofit, government, and private sectors and facilitate cross-sector learning on local food systems, food insecurity, and/or connection to university-based resources.
2. Observe and document successful methods/practices or impacts of food security work. Create success and challenges stories to be shared at a cross-sector convening.
3. Help a group of cross-sector partners apply for a grant initiative; provide grant writing support and capacity.

1. Host a series of meetings with local school officials and/or food service directors to better understand opportunities/needs for summer meal sites, greater free and reduced lunch participation, farm to school opportunities, universal student meals, etc.
2. Host a meet & greet event to connect school food service directors and administrators to producers to help facilitate purchasing local food.
3. Support a school district’s work to enroll families in Free and Reduced Lunch or Summer EBT .
4. Early interventions such as day care work- backpack meal programs for families whose children are in subsidized childcare/Head Start, Early Head Start support.

1. Support or explore gaps in “food hub” or CSA creation for producers, processors, distributors, markets.
2. Explore unusual partnerships and capacity building for local food production (ex. local prison or nonprofit organization) and food distribution (ex. food pantries, healthcare settings, etc.).
3. Launch/support Incubator/Community Kitchens, including connections to community meals. (This could include first steps such as a feasibility study).
4. Walk alongside a local retailer who has interest in utilizing TA or loan funding from Kansas Healthy Food Initiative and Rural Grocery Initiative.
5. Design a local food recovery system.
6. Implement or adapt the Kitchen ReStore project for your community.

1. Align with the efforts of local community health workers in resource navigation work (See recent KSU press release about similar efforts). Consider stationing a CHW at the food pantry or community meal sites.
2. Work with a local Public Health Department, Federally Qualified Healthcare Center, or Hospital to begin conversations to explore Food as Medicine/Produce Prescription opportunities.
3. Support expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) to new farmers markets, grocery stores, and farm stands.
4. Explore the use of a community-wide resource referral system (ex. Unite Us).
5. Increase SNAP enrollment in the unit’s coverage area: training and volunteers to go into communities and help folks apply, dispelling SNAP myths, such as immigration status, or enrolling in SNAP reduces SNAP for “people more in need”.
6. Help a local food pantry enhance operations with research-based best practices (ex.Healthy nudges at community food pantries- ways to incentives making for nutritious choices at food pantries, staffing nutrition educators at food pantries, collaboration with resource navigators, assessing and reducing barriers to food pantry access.)

Who should I contact with questions? You can contact us with questions at hfk@ksu.edu. You can also review the Informational Webinar. Recording Passcode: HC%weYi5

Can projects be submitted on a regional level?
Yes, however projects must display clear connections to local needs, show support from local extension units, and be implemented at the local level. We encourage a regional project to submit support letters from local extension units.

Can one local extension unit submit more than one application?
Local units may submit more than one application, but they should be completely separate projects. If there will be multiple applications, local units are encouraged to coordinate with other project ideas within their unit to reduce duplication.

Can a unit have multiple small projects wrapped up in one application?
Yes, as long as they can clearly relate to each other and work together.

Can counties or districts work together/apply as one if the entity serves and the project impacts folks in both?
Yes, a group of counties or districts can work together to submit an application for a project that serves multiple counties. It is important that one local unit be identified as the primary applicant and fiscal sponsor (holding the funds).

Would our local units be in charge of housing the money or would the money be housed somewhere else?
Yes, the local unit will be in charge of holding the funds and disbursing payments for the grant projects. The funds will be distributed as soon as possible after the grants are awarded.

Is there a way we can have access to the questions prior to entering the information into the Qualtrics survey? Qualtrics can be difficult to use for grant applications as sometimes you can't navigate between questions easily or come back to questions.
Yes, there is a PDF of the questions for planning purposes here.

How would an existing program score if the project is to expand vs being new?
Expansion of an existing program would be an acceptable project proposal. It is important that the application not just sustain existing work but give the option to do something different – such as expansion to a new area or reaching a different audience. The better you clearly explain why the expansion is needed and the expected impact, the better your application will be.

Can projects be used strictly for planning or must there be implementation?
Yes, these grants can be for planning activities, feasibility studies, or assessments. Keep in mind that we will likely expect planning activities to have less cost to them than a project that has a direct impact in some way. Also consider that planning activities or similar projects could have a cross-sector learning benefit and think about framing the application in that context as well.

How can community partners engage in the process?
This program is designed to support local Extension units’ ability to address local need. However, partnership is encouraged. Interested non-Extension partners are encouraged to work with their local office on an application, as partnership is a critical component of success. Find your local extension office. Community partners can support a local unit’s application to the Hunger Free KS Mini-Grant program by providing a letter of support for their application.

Do partnerships have to be new partnerships or can they be established partnerships? Does one score better than the other?
Partnerships can be existing or new. Due to the timeline, it is understood that established partnerships will be easier to include. We also provide the option to explain what types of partnerships or collaborations would be beneficial if you do not have an existing relationship so that we can help you connect with others.

Are there limits on the number of community partners involved?
No, there are no limits. However, it would be better to have 1-3 strong partners than a dozen partners that aren’t doing much toward the project. You only need a support letter from one partner.

Can projects span multiple categories (cross-sector learning, school-based nutrition programs, alternative food systems, social services access)?
Yes, you can select multiple categories. However, your application will not receive extra points for work in multiple categories.

For border counties, can some of the services provided benefit across state line?
Yes, border counties can include program activities that serve people on both sides of a state line, but it is important to show that the majority of the project or project benefits serve those in Kansas.

If the project proposal was to hire a local food advocate, would it be permissible to use the funds from this grant in addition to pledges from other community partners to do so?
Yes, in fact we encourage using these funds to leverage support locally. If your project will include significant funds from community partners, we would encourage you to clearly state that in your application, including how much you expect to leverage from other sources so we can understand the full extent of the project scope.

What types of expenses are eligible for this grant? Is staff allowed? How about food? This grant is intended to be flexible and allow you to fund whatever types of projects are most needed in your community. Staff time is allowed as an expense. Food costs, like any other costs, would need to be justified as integral to the overall project. We do not envision funding a purchase of bulk food for a local food pantry, for example, unless it were tied to another innovative programmatic element that addressed a policy, system, or environmental change.

Can the grant be used towards projects focusing higher up the food chain, i.e., developing a more efficient food production paradigm in the area?
Yes, but it needs to clearly connect to a community need. It will also benefit your application if the project can be connected to the needs of food insecure populations in your community.

Does project have to include local food?
No, the project does not need to include local food if it is not appropriate to the project.

Are there set reporting requirements? What should metrics/impacts look like?
The exact reporting requirements are not set yet. We expect to do some sort of storytelling or sharing activity with the grantees, as well as a survey or two to assess how the program went overall. In the application, we do ask you to propose a plan for evaluating the project – including what you will measure and how.

Is this intended to be a multi-year grant opportunity? Is this grant intended to be offered in subsequent years?
There are no guarantees of multi-year funding at this time. Currently, this funding opportunity is a one-time allocation.