New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City lands $590,000 in new USDA grants for food programs
NEW HAVEN — The city has been awarded two new grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, among the first to receive the new grants, according to a release.
The grants, from the USDA’s new Office of Urban Agriculture & Innovative Production, are $500,000 for the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP) Competitive Planning Grant, which was awarded to only 3 municipalities out of nearly 600 applicants, and $90,000 from the Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction (CCFWR) Projects grant.
The grants were announced at a press conference by New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, state Commissioner of Agriculture Bryan Hurlburt, New Haven Community Services Administrator Dr. Mehul Dalal and New Haven Food System Policy Director Latha Swamy.
“Securing this amount of funding from the USDA is a significant step for the small and relatively new Food System Policy Division at the City of New Haven,” Elicker said. “These resources will help further the FSPD’s mission to support and help manifest community-led efforts that envision and create an environmentally sustainable and socially just food system. We look forward to authentically partnering with community members and organizations across the City and state to eliminate long-standing regulatory, resource, and information barriers around urban agriculture and its related activities in New Haven.”
The grants will aid the city’s Food System Policy Division, the release said, the mission of which is “to support and help manifest community-led efforts that envision and create an environmentally sustainable and socially just food system.”
“As a leader on the House Appropriations Subcommittee that determines federal agriculture spending and funds this grant program, I am confident the City of New Haven will use the $590,000 in two separate grants to improve our community and support local businesses,” said DeLauro.
The funding will be used to develop the New Haven Urban Agriculture Master Plan, “an effective, responsive, transparent, fair, efficient, user-friendly, and predictable but flexible plan to access land and opportunities in order to support the production and sale of locally grown foods, build community, improve public health and well-being, and provide economic opportunity, particularly in areas that have vacant or underutilized land and low access to food,” said Swamy.
For information, visit foodpolicy.newhavenct.gov.