The Chaffee County Community Foundation (CCCF) announced Wednesday morning June 3 that it has opened applications for an innovative and collaborative group-based grant program from its Emergency Response Fund. It’s called the Food Access Cohort (FAC) Grant, part of its multifaceted response to the coronavirus known as COVID-19.
Bulk Foods shelves at Natural Grocers and community plea to save some for others. Merrell Bergin photo
The CCCF Board of Directors has allocated up to $20,000 in funds from the Emergency Response Fund (ERF) to build the capacity and coordination of Chaffee County food access organizations, as well as the resiliency of the food distribution and access systems in the county. Up to 10 organizations will be selected to receive $2,000 in general operating grants each.
“We take food security and food access seriously,” said CCCF Executive Director Joseph Teipel. “We recognize there are many Chaffee families who often make hard decisions between paying bills and putting food on the table, and because of COVID-19, that need is only increasing. This innovative and creative grant process will help build a more resilient food system in the county that serves the needs of all families and individuals.”
Contrary to a traditional grant application and award model, the Food Access Cohort will be modeled around the idea that the grantees will work together to increase coordination and collaboration to meet immediate community needs and ensure all Chaffee families and individuals have access to nutritious food over the coming months. In addition, as an outcome, grantees will work together to design and implement a project of their choosing that will build their capacity to respond to community emergencies.
The cohort will be grantor-facilitated, but grantee-led. This model ensures equity among organizations while elevating the role of the organizations as the issue experts, instead of the funder, building their capacity to meet the food needs of Chaffee County.
Each food access organization will be awarded a $2,000 general operating grant and must commit to participating in a series of six (virtual), weekly planning sessions. Over the course of these sessions, each organization will:
- Identify concrete areas of collaboration and build joint plans with fellow cohort organizations to implement the collaborations
- Participate in a grantee-led process that will result in an identifiable and implementable project to increase the medium and long-term capacity and resiliency of Chaffee County food access systems
- The CCCF board will also assess its ability to fund, either fully or partially, the grantee-led project. Examples of a project could be building a jointly used walk-in cooler; establishing shared and non-duplicative schedules; sharing a similar pickup/drop-off location for food distributions; investing in a shared database platform to better manage operations and clientele; etc.
The application is simple and due Friday, June 12. Learn More & Apply Here
Competitive applicants will demonstrate how their activities align with these priorities:
- Increasing basic and nutritious food access for Chaffee County and surrounding area low-income families and children
- Engaging food recipients in program design
- Building sustainable food distribution networks
- Increasing financially viable local food production
Eligibility Criteria: All applicants must be 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6), non-profit organizations; fiscally sponsored projects, or school district organizations operating in or serving Chaffee County.
The six weekly work sessions will begin the week of June 29, with the goal of being complete by August 15. Final reports will be due by August 31 and will focus on sharing feedback and learnings from the cohort model and process itself.
Those with questions about eligibility or the evaluation process should contact grants@chaffeecommunity.org.
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