Fund your healthy eating initiatives

There are many options for funding projects at your food shelf:

• Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) works to improve healthy food access. Contact your local SHIP project coordinator to inquire about mini-grant opportunities.
• Health-related organizations in your community, including health care clinics, may be looking for preventive health activities to support.
• Grantors (organizations or foundations) in your local community, as well as across the state and nation. An internet search can help you locate opportunities.

If you are looking for larger sums of money and you have the infrastructure to manage a federal grant, you may want to look into options available from the USDA Rural Development Program or the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

What you can do today

• Locate your local SHIP coordinator and learn more about the program: SHIP Communities
• Search for federal grant options: Grants.gov

How Extension can help

For ideas or support grant writing, contact an Extension educator in your region: Our Extension Educators.

Find out more about promoting healthy eating at food shelves:

• Identify healthy food
• Source healthy food
• Work with local growers
• Ensure safety of healthy food
• Store Healthy Foods Properly
• Work with limited storage space
• Drive selection of healthy foods
• Provide practical information
• Find healthy recipes
• Enlist volunteers' help
• Include healthy foods in your backpack program
• Do cooking demonstrations
• Develop a healthy food policy

Download the complete document: Promoting healthy eating at food shelves (PDF).