Colorado Farm & Food Systems Respond & Rebuild Fund

The Colorado Farm & Food Systems Respond & Rebuild Fund has a third round of grants available, made possible by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. About $1 million is available for producers, processors, and intermediaries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications are open through Nov. 9, 2020. 

The COVID-19 crisis is dramatically affecting the food supply chain and the livelihoods of Colorado’s farmers and ranchers. There is a need for funding to support producers serving non-commodity markets, especially small- and mid-size growers; beginning farmers and ranchers; veteran farmers; Black, Indigenous, and farmers of color; and female and LGBTQ+ farmers — as those historically underserved by public programs will bear the brunt of the crisis’s impact.

Grants are administered by the independent Colorado Farm & Food Systems Response Team, a group of 14 food-systems organizations that has already allocated more than $370,000 in donor funds to producers and intermediaries in 2020. 

The following entities are eligible to apply in the third round of the Respond & Rebuild Fund:

• Producers: Any small- and mid-size direct-market producers, defined as producers with annual gross revenue of between $1,000 and $1 million.

• Intermediaries: Associations, food hubs, markets, and other intermediaries who sell within local and regional Colorado markets who have a history of partnering with and can provide direct benefit to producers in their network during this event.

• Processors: Organizations processing human or animal food and/or using byproducts to create secondary products such as fuel, fiber, or other agricultural products. Other processing of agricultural products will also be considered, but priority will be given to processing of human and animal food, including processing of byproducts of food (such as hides, offal, compost, grain meal, etc.).

• For-profit and nonprofit entities.

• Past applicants and grantees.

**Requests that do not qualify for funding: **

• Requests for support that are unrelated to the COVID-19 crisis.

• Requests from producers with annual gross revenue less than $1,000 or more than $1 million.

• Requests from processors with annual gross revenue less than $10,000 or more than $10 million.

• Requests covering costs beyond December 30, 2020

Grants will be available for individual producers, covering a maximum of $12,500 for demonstrated losses/costs and/or business model pivots due to COVID-19. Processors and intermediaries and (associations of producers, farmers markets, and food hubs) may request up to $50,000. We will give priority to intermediaries that demonstrate added value to their regional food system; we intend to balance fund distribution geographically and among commodity groups to ensure Colorado’s agricultural regions (including the Front Range) receive support.

Application is now closed. To get updates from CFFSRT, you can subscribe to their email list here.