Maryland Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Fund Program

The purpose of the Certified Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program is to demonstrate how the investment of funds can help to grow and strengthen Maryland’s local food system and to create opportunities for small farmers to sell products to wholesale and institutional markets. The grant funds will be used to fund projects that help small farmers aggregate their product to sell to institutional or wholesale buyer. Funds will be used to provide financial support to up to five small-scale farmer-led projects. See below for more information:

MARBIDCO offers two levels of grant funding for food aggregation projects:

1. Small-Scale Farmer Aggregation Project – A grant of between $25,000 and $100,000 is available. 

2. Public Sector Aggregation Project – A grant of between $150,000 and $400,000 is available.

Small-Scale Farmer Aggregation Project

Applicants for the small-scale farmer aggregation grant must include at least four Certified Local Farm Enterprise farmers and applicants must provide at least a 20% match of private funds in the project. An example of a small-scale aggregation entity could include an agricultural marketing group (an LLC), or legally organized farm cooperative using the grant funds to purchase cold storage equipment or construct an indoor processing facility in order to better handle products moving to wholesale and institutional buyers.The applicant must provide evidence that it will be selling some quantity of product to a specific wholesale or institutional buyer. An example could be the public school system. This could be in the form of a contract or letter of commitment, which specifies it will purchase a certain amount of product

Public Sector Aggregation Project

Applicants for the larger scale aggregation grant will be a public entity (such as a county government, municipality, community college, university, county school system or rural regional council). The grant is for public projects that plan to be primarily aggregation centers for wholesale and institutional buyers. If the applicant is the buyer, it would need to provide a commitment to purchase from at least four Certified Local Farm Enterprise farmers and include what it plans to purchase and the amount of each product. If the applicant is facilitating the aggregation, it would need to provide evidence of that it will aggregate produce from at least four Certified Local Farm Enterprise farmers and provide a commitment from a wholesaler or institution to purchase from the aggregation center. The grant requires at least a 20% match of funds in the project. A project of this size might also require a partnership of multiple entities and funding sources.

Read and complete the appropriate application form for either a Small-Scale Farmer Aggregation Project or a Public Sector Aggregation Project.

Send completed applications and all attachments to:

MARBIDCO Local Farm Enterprise Food Aggregation Grant Program

1410 Forest Drive, Suite 21

Annapolis, MD 21403

or email to skubofcik@marbidco.org.

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