The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) will take a dual approach to the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) project.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Illinois Department of Human Services and University of Illinois Extension entered into the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement to create a meaningful and sustainable model to bridge underserved farmers and ranchers with food insecure communities. This cooperative agreement is an opportunity to unite Illinoisans invested in building a resilient and diverse food system and a network of food system support.

The Hawaii State Department of Education (Department) strives to improve student health, enrich the local food system through the support and increase of local food procurement, and expand relationships between public schools and agricultural communities.1 The Department’s project aims to provide additional food security and stability to school children and their families by providing produce boxes during school intersession when students are not normally provided meals.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) aims to strengthen local and regional food systems using LFPA program funds. They will support local and socially disadvantaged farmers by expanding economic opportunities and establishing partnerships with farmers, producers, and food distribution networks. The goal is to ensure fresh and nutritious food reaches rural, remote, and underserved communities. 

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Food, Nutrition and Wellness (FDACS) is proposing to administer $21,674,292 through a non-competitive cooperative agreement from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program Plus (LFPA Plus). These funds will be utilized to augment FDACS’s current LFPA project. 

The project purpose is to facilitate and increase direct-to-market sales of food products grown by Delaware farmers, to Delaware community members. The project will 1) establish a farmer cooperative focused on marketing, promotion, and to maximize capacity of small, disadvantaged farmers; 2) identify existing community outlets providing food access specifically to under-resourced populations with demonstrated food insecurities; and 3) develop a model enabling small farmers and community outlets (ultimately retailers and other market institutions) to establish procurement relationships.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) will administer the LFPA Plus program funds through a continuation of (1) a partnership with the only statewide food bank, CT Foodshare (2) through awards made from a competitive grants process. Awardees are Brass City Harvest, City of Bridgeport, Click Inc., Partners for a Sustainable Healthy Community, New London Community Meal Center, Forge City Works, and Vertical Church. Both avenues allow for sub awards to local organizations to purchase and distribute Connecticut Grown farm products.

The Colorado Dept. of Human Services (CDHS) in collaboration with the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture (CDA), shall procure Colorado food products, focused on socially disadvantaged producers, packing, transportation and distribution to Coloradans in need of nutritional support due to financial hardship. A decentralized approach will be used, by administering the LFPA Plus program funds through multiple subawards. A new competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process will be used to distribute additional LFPA Plus funding through April of 2025.

The goal of the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program is to establish cooperative agreements with state governments and Tribal governments for the purpose of purchasing food, supporting local producers, and socially disadvantaged farmers. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) will develop a partnership with multiple agencies to meet this goal. CDSS will be sub-awarding the funds to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), California Association of Food Banks (CAFB), and California Food Banks.

Through the Local Food Purchase Agreement, the Arkansas Department of Human Service, Division of Child Care and Early Childcare Education Commodity Distribution Unit will partner with food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, and other distributors within the local food distribution and network to order domestic food from local and regional producers. The partnership will target socially disadvantaged farmers/producers, with the intent to distribute to underserved communities in Arkansas.