U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue recently said $16.8 million in grant funding will go to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants increase their fruit and vegetable consumption.
“These grants help provide low income families with the resources they need to consume more nutritious food,” Perdue said in a Department of Agriculture (USDA) release.
The incentive will take the form of 32 individual grants, the release said. The grants will be administered by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and will be capitalized via the 2014 Farm Bill authorizing a Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program.
Assistance will be allotted to 32 diverse organizations nationwide — from farmers markets serving underserved populations to food banks and health networks, the release said.
Last year, SNAP helped put healthy food on the tables of at least 44 million Americans, including 19 million children.
Grants will be awarded to 11 one-year pilot projects, each receiving $100,000 or less; 17 multi-year community-based projects, each receiving up to $500,000 for initiatives lasting up to four years; and four large-scale projects, also lasting up to four years, the release said.
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