Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Funding through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) - Foundational and Applied Science Program will establish three additional USDA Nutrition Hubs in communities across the country. The new Nutrition Hubs will provide tailored and scalable approaches to equitably advance food and nutrition security and help prevent diet-related chronic diseases, especially in priority communities of interest including Tribal, Hispanic and Insular Areas.

The Nutrition Hubs must support and coordinate activities across all three emphasis areas (Extension, Education, and Research), but the primary emphasis should be on Extension.

View the Funding Announcement Here

View the Request for Applications Here

Rural Energy for America Program (REAP)

Funding Overview: The program provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. Agricultural producers can also apply for new energy-efficient equipment and new system loans for agricultural production and processing. 

Eligible Entities: Agricultural producers with at least 50 percent of their gross income coming from agricultural operations, Small businesses in eligible rural areas. 

Partners for Health Grant Pre-Application

Funding Overview: Partners for Health Foundation provides funding to organizations and communities in two ways.

• General Operating Grants: Can strengthen an organization and its ability to change systems, listen to constituents, advocate for long term policy change, and determine how to measure outcomes incrementally on the journey toward their overall goals.
• Project Grants: To support specific initiatives, projects, and collaborative efforts to shift the conditions that prevent communities from thriving. (Policy, systems and environmental change)

The Pre-Application form is required as the first step in applying for funding from Partners for Health Foundation. Following internal review, organizations will be invited to complete a full application, or notified that their proposal will not be considered. Notifications are scheduled for the end of July.

Eligible Entities: Non-for-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) public charity designation by the IRS are eligible for grants. Partners for Health also funds local government entities, or small organizations that have a fiscal sponsor that is a 501(c)(3). Eligible organizations that serve one or more of the following 15 communities: Bloomfield, Caldwell, Cedar Grove, Clifton, Essex Fells, Fairfield, Glen Ridge, Little Falls, Montclair, North Caldwell, Nutley, Roseland, Verona, West Caldwell and West Orange. Statewide organizations that support local coalitions or advocate for statewide policy change to advance health equity and social justice may also be eligible for funding.

CVS Health Foundation Focus on Healthy Aging Program

Funding Overview: The Focus on Healthy Aging (FOHA) initiative is a multi-year philanthropic investment to improve health outcomes for people over age 60. The CVS Health Foundation intends to collaborate with established multi-sector, community-based partnerships working to strengthen systems of care at the local level. This new, five-year initiative will launch in October 2024 in up to five sites nationwide. City- or county-level partnerships will each be awarded $1,000,000 to implement strategies that improve health outcomes for older adults. FOHA defines its priority population as individuals (60+ years) who are at the most significant risk of experiencing negative brain, heart, and/or mental health outcomes. Drivers of risk for this population may include geography (e.g., rurality, vulnerability to natural disasters, poor air quality, and extreme heat), social isolation, race/ethnicity, limited English proficiency, and socioeconomic status. The vision of this initiative is that older adults will experience their stage of life with fair and just opportunities to attain their highest level of mental and physical health.

Eligible Entities: FOHA is intended to support mature collective impact efforts at the local level and recognizes that these efforts are operationalized differently depending on the community context. While being open to different partnership designs, the Foundation is specifically looking for partnerships that include the following components:

• An articulated intention to address challenges that span beyond any single organization’s mission, constituents, and sphere of influence.
• A local backbone agency that coordinates and aligns the work of all partners.
• A regular cadence for bringing together partners to share information, engage in strategic planning, and develop solutions.
• A diverse representation of sectors serving the priority population. For this RFP, we encourage applications from partnerships that include the health care, labor, legal, transportation, housing, social services, and public health sectors.
• A history of working together to serve older adults for at least three (3) years.

Note: the Foundation will not consider applications from universities that propose “multi-sector” partnerships consisting of different schools within a single university system. The Foundation will also not consider applications in which the backbone agency is a national organization.

USDA-AMS Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program (FLSP) 

Funding Overview: The FLSP program aims to improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency by addressing challenges agricultural employers face with labor shortages and instability. Funding can be used to offset costs of sourcing farm labor, including hiring, onboarding, and other operational expenses associated with U.S.-born and H-2A workers. 

Eligible Entities: Eligibility is limited to domestic agricultural employers who 1) anticipate meeting all Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulatory requirements for the H-2A program, including demonstrated effort to effectively recruit U.S.-based workers and hire all willing, able, and qualified U.S. workers; and 2) commit to, and indicate capacity to fulfill all Baseline Requirements, as well as any selected (elective) worker benefits and protections outlined in Supplemental Employee Commitments sections of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO). This includes fixed-site employers, joint-employers, agricultural associations, and H-2A labor contractors. 

Urban Agriculture and Innovation Production Program (UAIP)

Funding Overview: UAIP funds are issued to projects that support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production, improve access to local foods in areas where access to fresh, healthy food is limited or unavailable through urban and/or innovative agricultural practices, and support multiple farmers or gardeners, impacting underserved areas that are lacking access to fresh, healthy foods, and promote urban and/or innovative agricultural practices with planning and implementation activities. 

Eligible Entities: City/Municipal/County governments, independent school districts, non-profits, native American tribal organizations and governments, special district governments, public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. 

Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG)

Funding Overview: Every spring, the NJDA requests applications for the funding available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) to carry out projects that enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Projects must enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops through research, promotion, marketing, nutrition, trade enhancement, food safety, food security, plant health programs, education, “buy local” programs, increased consumption, increased innovation, improved efficiency and reduced costs of distribution systems, environmental concerns and conservation, product development, and developing cooperatives. 

Eligible Entities: City or township governments, County governments, Independent school districts, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Non-profits, Private institutions of higher education, Public and State-controlled institutions of higher education, and other partnership groups. 

Food Security Access Fund

Funding Overview: The Food Security Access Fund launched in 2023 to strengthen the food security system in New Jersey with a unique approach: bring together private philanthropies and New Jersey state agencies via a partnership with the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate (OFSA) to help nonprofit organizations build capacity and secure more pre-existing public grant opportunities. Funding from the Food Security Access Fund supports these organizations in two ways: 

1. Grant Navigator Support: Human capital support to identify and unlock relevant grants to support their work in building food security.
2. Capacity Building Support: Financial assistance for organizations and coalitions to expand the research, data and evaluation projects that identify new paths to end food insecurity.

Learn more about the inaugural cohort of grantees on the Tepper Foundation site. 

Cultivating Access, Rights, and Equity (CARE) Grant

Funding Overview: The Cultivating Access, Rights & Equity (CARE) Grant Program aims to increase equitable access to key programs, including NJ Earned Sick Leave, NJ Work Rights, NJ Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits, and Unemployment Insurance, through outreach, education and technical assistance to workers and employers. 

Eligible Entities: The Grant Program seeks partnerships with eligible entities who demonstrate capacity and a history of success providing outreach, education, technical assistance and/or support to workers and/or employers. This includes community-based organizations, service providers, worker centers, unions, legal services organizations, faith-based organizations, chambers of commerce (including ethnic chambers of commerce), small business associations, employer associations, and county and local government agencies. 

USDA-AMS Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) 

Funding Overview: LAMP funds can be leveraged to help local and regional food entities develop, coordinate, and expand producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets, and local food enterprises. 

Eligible Entities: Agricultural businesses and cooperatives, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) networks and associations, Food councils, Economic development corporations, Local governments, Nonprofit and public benefit corporations, Producer networks or associations, Regional farmers’ market authorities, Tribal governments 

USDA-NRCS NJ Community Gardens/Farm Agreement

Funding Overview: The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is announcing the potential availability of funding for the purpose of leveraging NRCS resources to encourage collaboration with partners in providing strategic conservation delivery assistance and/or provide tools or data that enhance the ability of the agency to support conservation activities. The overall intent of this solicitation is to solicit partnerships to help enhance the implementation of key conservation objectives and priorities for NJ communities. 

Eligible Entities: City or township governments, County governments, Independent school districts, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Non-profits, Private institutions of higher education, Public and State-controlled institutions of higher education, Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Special district governments, and State governments