2016 FINI Grant Awardees Announced

      Posted On: June 10, 2016

Crossroads Community Food NetworkThis week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the awardees of $16.8 million in competitive grants to help SNAP (formally food stamps) participants increase their purchases of fruits and vegetables. The funding comes from the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack remarked:

“Last year, SNAP kept at least 4.7 million Americans — including 2.1 million children — out of poverty. Programs like FINI build on the success we’ve seen with the use of healthy incentives and with many of the projects being run at farmers markets, we’re also helping to strengthen local and regional food systems.”

FINI is a joint program between NIFA and USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which oversees SNAP and evaluates the impact of the variety of types of incentive programs being deployed by FINI grantees. The program brings together stakeholders from different parts of the national food system to improve the nutrition and health status of SNAP households. The awards under FINI represent a variety of projects, including relatively small pilot projects, multi-year community-based projects, and larger-scale multi-year projects.

2016 FINI awardees are listed below. Congratulations to FMC members Experimental Station, Wholesome Wave, and New Mexico State Farmers’ Marketing Association who received funding, and the many FMC members that will benefit from these projects. Descriptions of each project can be found here.

Pilot projects (up to $100,000, not to exceed 1 year):

  • Community Food Bank, Inc., Tucson, AZ ($62,923)
  • Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, Little Rock, AR ($94,000)
  • Chicago Horticultural Society, Chicago, IL ($99,973)
  • The Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc., Indianapolis, IN ($100,000)
  • Mountain Comprehensive Health Corp., Whitesburg, KY ($72,360)
  • Michigan Physical Fitness, Health and Sports Foundation, Lansing MI ($29,809)
  • The Fortune Society, Inc., Long Island, NY ($100,000)
  • Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Grove City, OH ($100,000)
  • South Central Community Action Programs, Inc., Gettysburg, PA ($26,242)
  • Vermont Department of Health, Burlington, VT ($100,000)
  • City of Madison, Madison, WI ($93,055)
  • Hunger Task Force, Inc., Milwaukee, WI ($100,000)

Multi-year community-based projects (up to $500,000, not to exceed 4 years):

  • Pinnacle Prevention Corp., Gilbert, AZ ($400,000)
  • Youth Policy Institute, Los Angeles, CA ($499,923)
  • Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative, Oakland, CA ($155,200)
  • San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, San Francisco, CA ($308,131)
  • LiveWell Colorado, Denver, CO ($497,806)
  • Wholesome Wave, Bridgeport, CT ($499,720)
  • Experimental Station, Chicago, IL ($313,499)
  • Community Food & Agriculture Coalition Inc., Missoula, MT ($94,312)
  • Harvest Home Farmer’s Market, New York, NY ($499,992)
  • Field & Fork Network Inc., Williamsville, NY ($393,813)
  • Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, Inc., Tulsa, OK ($481,191)

Multi-year large-scale projects ($500,000 or greater, not to exceed 4 years):

  • University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA ($3,384,909)
  • Mid-America Regional Council Community Services Corporation, Kansas City, MO ($2,888,979)
  • New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association, Santa Fe, NM ($2,001,198)
  • Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc., New York, NY ($3,378,965)