Nonprofits can apply for grants from a $1.25 million Food Access Grant program to help vulnerable communities in Montgomery County during the pandemic.
The County Council allocated $750,000 for the program on Thursday. The remaining $500,000 came from the council’s previous allocation for nonprofits to provide safety net services.
Nonprofits can apply for grants of up to $75,000 until noon on Friday. Grants will start to be distributed on May 12.
The grants will be used to help families receive a steady, reliable supply of food. They include funding for partnerships with ethnic grocery stores to increase the availability of culturally appropriate food assistance.
Of the $750,000 allocated on Thursday, $400,000 will support providers in the county; $300,000 will go to purchase ethnic and culturally appropriate food from ethnic grocery stores, to be distributed to areas with vulnerable residents; and $50,000 will be to design a long-term strategy that uses local food producers .
The criteria that each nonprofit will be reviewed under includes “population served, services tailored to meet language and cultural needs, impact on underserved and hard-to-reach communities and the feasibility of implementation,” according to a news release the county issued on Monday.
Applications will be reviewed by the county’s Food Security Task Force, which is made up of county employees, community partners and food assistance recipients. The county Department of Health and Human Services, the Montgomery County Food Council and the Healthcare Initiative Foundation (HIF) are partnering to run the program.
Applications can be submitted through the HIF website. Nonprofits that need to submit an application through a different method or need it to be provided in another language can email Jess.Fuchs@hifmc.org.
Questions about the program can be sent to mark.hodge@montgomerycountymd.gov.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.
