Promote Healthy Eating
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food wants to empower consumers to be able to make smart decisions when they eat. This means understanding the importance of diet and regular exercise. It also means learning more about where your food comes from and how it gets to your plate, so that you can more closely link with your community and the hard-working farmers and ranchers that produce your food.
USDA wants to expand access to local, nutritious foods, especially for low-income folks, seniors, and nursing and pregnant women. Consumers that are aware and can make healthy decisions while supporting the local economy will lead to healthier communities and a healthier America.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
Community Food Projects
Community Food Projects fund proactive approaches to making communities more self reliant at maintaining their food systems while addressing food, nutrition, and farm issues. Grants are intended to help eligible private nonprofit entities that need a one-time infusion of federal assistance to establish and carry out multipurpose community food projects. » More...
Farm to School
The Farm to School initiative is an effort to connect schools (K - 12) with regional or local farms in order to serve healthy meals using locally produced foods. Farm to School activities may vary from community to community depending upon demographics; however, the basic goals remain the same. » More...
Farmers Market Promotion Program
To help communities support local food systems through direct marketing. Direct marketing includes farmers markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture, and agri-tourism. Projects that focus on increasing access to local foods by low-income residents receive special priority. » More...
Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program
Funds are used to explore barriers, challenges, and opportunities in marketing, transporting, and distributing food and forest products. » More...
Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition
To provide low-income seniors with coupons that can be exchanged for fresh, nutritious, unprepared fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey at farmers' markets, roadside stands and community supported agriculture programs. » More...
Specialty Crop Block Grants
States administer grant programs to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, horticulture, flowers). As part of our "Growing Local Food Initiatives," many projects involve grant money to market locally-grown foods. » More...
Women, Infants and Children - Farmers' Market Nutrition Program
The goal is to provide fresh, nutritious, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables through farmers' markets to women receiving nutrition assistance, and to expand the awareness and use of farmers' markets by women receiving nutrition assistance. » More...
