Seeding USDA Investment in Regional Food Systems

This spring, Seed Change Strategies is providing technical assistance to organizations to help them design, write, and win grants from the USDA Local Food Promotion Program, Farmers Market Promotion Program, and Regional Food Systems Partnership program. Sound like something you may be interested in? Click below to share a little more about your work so we can figure out if we’re a good fit, and read on for more details.

🌱About Seed Change Strategies: 

Seed Change Strategies is a mission-driven consulting firm co-founded by Ellie Bomstein, Elizabeth Atwell, and Will Gray. Our goal is to help organizations and networks working to build resilient regional food systems connect to the people, ideas, and resources they need to spark and sustain transformative change. We bring extensive experience in growing impactful collaborations, facilitating communities of practice, grant-writing, program design, and organizational strategy to our work. You can read more about our approach here. 

💡Shining a Light on LAMP Grants 

The USDA Local Agriculture and Marketing Program (lovingly referred to as “LAMP”) is an umbrella program created through the 2018 Farm Bill. The grant programs that LAMP funds aim to support the “development, coordination, and expansion of direct producer-to-consumer marketing; local and regional food markets and enterprises; and value-added agricultural products.” 

LAMP is made up of four grant programs:

These programs are a cornerstone of funding for the movement to build resilient regional food systems. Each year, these grants put millions of dollars into local and regional efforts that support local farms and food businesses and build regional value chains. 

The good news is that, thanks to the hard word of advocacy coalitions like NSAC that fight to keep these programs funded, these grant opportunities come back around every spring, like a robin returning home to roost. They’re paid for by your tax dollars… so they should, at least in theory, be accessible and available to all qualifying organizations that write a good proposal. 

The bad news is that applying for – and administering – these grants programs can be exacting, complex, and time-consuming. They’re particularly daunting for small and limited-resource organizations who have never received one.

This sets up a cycle where small organizations without a lot of money or capacity have trouble accessing these grants, and bigger, well-resourced organizations can more easily apply for and win these grants. And with levels of funding available dropping back down to pre-pandemic levels, these grant programs are more competitive than ever. 

OK, back to good news! We are here to help! We believe that with some dedicated support and the right systems in place - anyone can write and win one of these grants. 

🤓Why we’re such nerds about LAMP Grants 

Resilient and equitable regional food systems are a public good. So public funding – like LAMP Grants – has a major role to play in growing and sustaining the work that builds a better food system. But, these grants are no cake walk, and their complexity can discourage grassroots organizations from applying – even when those organizations are well-placed to do the most good with this funding. 

Together, the team at Seed Change Strategies has designed, written, won and managed over $3M in LAMP Grants. We’ve also provided technical support and training to dozens of organizations applying for these grants. And we believe that they can have a huge impact. LAMP grants are kind of like those tests in high school where your teacher gave you a study guide with exactly what you were going to be tested on. When you prepare the right way, you’ll be set up for success; and those grant reviewers will want to give you an A. 

🤝Our offering 

This spring we are partnering with a handful of organizations that want support designing, writing, and winning LAMP Grants. We will provide expert guidance and tailored coaching paired with comprehensive tools and support to help your team from project conception all the way through to grant submission. 

Our process focuses on helping you: 

  • Design a project that is aligned with your organization’s vision and values 

  • Collaborate with partners in a way that prioritizes trust and transparency 

  • Write a proposal that meets all the requirements that reviewers will be looking for

  • Build a budget that reflects your project’s needs and your organization’s capacity 

  • Create an effective system for monitoring and evaluation 

  • Gather feedback and edits through a comprehensive review and coaching process 

  • Do it all while minimizing stress and building skills that will make you a better grant writer and program designer

🗓️Timeline 

We anticipate beginning work with clients in mid-February and supporting them up through the grant deadline, which may be anywhere from early May to mid-June.

🪙Cost 

In this work we are motivated by a steadfast belief that these grant programs should be equitable and accessible to those organizations who have been systematically excluded from USDA programs in the past - particularly BIPOC led- and serving- organizations. We are committed to helping limited resource organizations, especially those who have never applied for or won one of these grants.

As such, we offer a sliding scale pricing structure, inspired by the good folks at AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance). This sliding scale is an intentional effort to redistribute resources across the organizations we work with, and helps us work with a diversity of organizations across the movement. We offer:

  • a solidarity rate of $3,000,

  • a full-cost rate of $5,000,

  • and a redistribution rate of $7,000.

The solidarity rate is prioritized for organizations from predominantly BIPOC communities and those with budgets under $200,000 a year. The redistribution rate helps make it possible for us to work with grassroots organizations at a lower cost. 

We’re also committed to making sure that we are the right fit for you and to sharing free resources with everyone who reaches out, regardless of ability to pay. 

👟Why you don’t actually want us to write your grant for you

You might be saying “wait, you’re not going to write this grant for us? Then what's the money for?!” We promise – it’s better for your organization and your project if we don’t. These 2-3 year grant-funded projects are a marathon, not a sprint, and submitting the proposal gets you to the starting line. Then, if you win the grant, you have to actually run the race – AKA do the work of implementing the project laid out in the proposal.

Only you and your team know the in’s and out’s of your organization, your partners, your systems, your needs, your vision, your values well enough to design a project that fits into and supports all of those things. Implementing a grant that someone else wrote is kind of like running a marathon in somebody else’s shoes – uncomfortable to say the least. 

Our goal is to equip your team with the skills, tools, and frameworks that you can carry forward on your own, and a grant design process that will help you for years to come. 

🚀Ready to go? 

Fill out this short questionnaire to give us a better sense of your organization, the project idea you are cooking up, and the kind of support you are looking for. Someone from our team will get back to you soon to set up a free, 30-minute consultation.