Northeast SARE Farming Community Grant

The Northeast SARE Farming Community Grant supports multistate and regional projects that advance regenerative and sustainable agriculture at the intersection of nutrition and health, people, animals, and pathogens. The program prioritizes interdisciplinary projects that generate impactful, adaptable knowledge; strengthen partnerships; improve health and well-being; and support productive, profitable, safe, and sustainable Northeast food and farming systems. Projects may address areas such as marketing and business, crop production, livestock, aquaculture, economic and social sustainability, and ecological knowledge. Proposals should prioritize SARE legislative priorities related to human and animal well-being and agricultural employment. The program does not support general public education, food donation efforts, public awareness campaigns, or community and school gardening initiatives.

This is a $250,000–$500,000 multistate/regional project grant, not producer cost-share. A farmer can be the project leader — but only if they are "housed at" an organization that can hold the contract.

Who may lead a project. "The Project Leader can be anyone who works with farmers, including personnel at: Nonprofit organizations; For profit businesses (such as farms) that provide agricultural consulting, veterinary services, etc.; Farms, farmers, farm employees and farming community groups; Communities committed to building the capacity and resilience of sustainable agriculture; Colleges and Universities; Cooperative Extension; Municipalities; State Departments of Agriculture; Federal agencies (like NRCS)."

The organization test — the real barrier. "The Project Leader must be housed at an organization that:

• Can sign and commit to a contract with Northeast SARE.

• Has enough funds to cover at least the first two months of project expenses" — "Northeast SARE grants are reimbursement-based. Advance payments are not possible."

• "Can register in SAM.gov to get a required Unique Entity Identifier, if your project is awarded."

• "Is able to implement the project as outlined in the proposal"; can "submit annual reports each year of the project, plus a final report within 60 days of the project end date"; and "will respond promptly to communications from Northeast SARE."

Where. "Project activities must primarily take place in the Northeast region of the US," defined as "Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, D.C." Note the asymmetry — "Applicants and host organizations may be located outside of the Northeast region." The call is for "multistate/regional projects," so a single-farm or single-state project is not the fit.

Explicitly ineligible.

• "Past SARE grant recipients with unfinished projects"

• "Current grant recipients who are delinquent in their project reporting"

• "Identical projects being funded by another grant at Northeast SARE"

• "Members of the Northeast SARE Administrative Council, SARE staff, and SARE State Coordinators" — who also "are not permitted to be funded or named in proposals"

And: "Project leaders may only submit one proposal per grant program. Project leaders may only receive one award per program per year."

Out of scope no matter who applies. "Educational programs for the general public; Food donation efforts; General public awareness campaigns about agriculture and nutrition; Community or school gardening initiatives."

Research conditions. Projects involving vertebrate animals or human subjects must have approved IACUC and/or IRB documentation on file with Northeast SARE before grant funds can be used for research ("all youth research requires a full IRB review").

No thresholds, and no audience restriction. No acreage minimum, income test, tenure requirement or years-of-experience floor is published, and there is no beginning/veteran/underserved restriction. Be realistic about the odds, though: "Approximately 12.72% of submitted Farming Community grant proposals are funded," and Northeast SARE estimates "it will take between 35 and 45 hours to complete your proposal."

Northeast SARE's Administrative Council allocated approximately $1,500,000 to fund projects for this cycle of farming community grants. There is no cap on total grant requests, however, requests typically fall between $250,000 and $500,000.

The Call for Proposals is open. Proposals are due Oct 26 by 4 p.m. ET. Applicants and grantees of the Farming Community Grant Program are eligible for Technical Assistance (TA) provided by Northeast SARE's Technical Assistance Providers.