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Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants Research Paper

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Introduction

Allocating funds for a project might prove a challenging task, regardless of how selfless or morally sound it is. Such is the case with VeggieRX: the program intends to cultivate vegetables in a dedicated Lexington Park school garden, allowing for the education of 430 students in terms of vegetable variety. Apart from that, the program aims to address food insecurity by providing freshly grown garden vegetables to the school’s students. Overall, the program will last for 14 months, requiring a total of $663,881.4. In this context, the current paper aims to allocate a grant that would fund the VeggieRX initiative.

Funding Opportunities for Veggierx

Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program

In order to locate a necessary funding opportunity, the initial search based on the words “grant funding food insecurity” proved sufficient. Namely, the first search result yielded a reference to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Conveniently enough, its website has a search engine dedicated to grant fund allocation based on the chosen filter settings. Thus, after filtering the database by the topic of Food and Nutrition Security, one can find an opportunity titled Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program (CFPCGP).

This funding opportunity is supervised directly by NIFA and includes numerous projects found worthy of inclusion and funding. It was posted on August 1, 2023, under the USDA-NIFA-CFP-009982 funding opportunity number as a governmentally funded grant to address food and nutrition insecurity, one of the main threats to the contemporary U.S. population (The U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], 2023c; The White House, 2022).

In short, the program aims to promote food planning projects and community food projects that might present themselves until October 30, 2023 (USDA, 2023b). The potential award ranges from $25,000 to $400,000 depending on the program’s evaluation (USDA, 2023b). In other words, a success in this direction might cover up to almost two-thirds of VeggieRX’s required budget. According to USDA (2023b), “public food program service providers, tribal organizations, or private nonprofit entities, including gleaners,” are considered eligible for this grant. In this context, Lexington Park School can apply as a public food program service provider.

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative

Another funding opportunity presented by USDA NIFA is titled Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: Education and Workforce Development (AFRI-EWD). This is a broader funding opportunity compared to CFPCGP since it involves more specialized and individualized support in terms of food and agricultural sciences. In particular, AFRI-EWD, numbered USDA-NIFA-AFRI-009842, can aid in the professional development of K–14 educators, the community workforce, undergraduate students, and predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars training (USDA, 2023a).

Most importantly, however, this grant supports initiatives aimed at “non-formal education that cultivates food and agricultural interest in youth” recognized as a part of national food and nutrition security (USDA, 2023a; USDA, 2023c). AFRI-EWD was posted on May 2, 2023, and accepts applications until December 7, 2023, and awards worthy applicants with $20,000–$750,000, with a total estimated program funding of $49,000,000 (USDA, 2023a). So far, everything appears to be greatly in favor of the VeggieRX project.

Unfortunately, there might be issues with the AFRI-EWD grant’s eligibility. According to USDA (2023a), it supports a variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations, small businesses, and state-controlled high education institutions, which does not apply to Lexington Park’s elementary school. Nevertheless, as AFRI-EWD’s eligibility description states after the initial list, other organizations may be eligible to apply (USDA, 2023a).

That is, the grant’s management might decide to fund an organization if it finds the proposed project worthy. An opportunity for VeggieRX to be evaluated on an individual basis is tremendously useful in the context of not meeting the initial eligibility conditions. I believe AFRI-EWD’s management will ultimately decide to support VeggieRX since Lexington Park School’s initiative fulfills two out of five of its main goals, such as workforce training and youth education on food and nutrition security.

Stakeholders and Outcomes

While a point concerning youth education is rather self-explanatory, there are a lot of stakeholders from different backgrounds connected to Lexington Park Elementary School, and some of them could be struggling with food security. According to VeggieRX’s plan, any vegetables that Maryland’s soil can sustain will be included among the food items offered by the food suppliers.

The initiative will also involve regular check-ups to see whether the pupils have access to enough food from the garden to promote consumption of items like fruits and vegetables that are good for your health. Thus, a large number of workers outside the school might be involved in the project’s supervision and practice. One other activity that might be included in the program to promote healthy behaviors among children and the community is the inclusion of local festivals. The community may unite at these joyful events, take advantage of the program’s benefits, and exchange information in an inspiring environment.

Conclusion

Overall, based on the Lexington Park Elementary School project manager’s ability to persuade NIFA representatives, VeggieRX might require either only AFRI-EWD financial support or both AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP. In this context, ensuring the help of NIFA through AFRI-EWD is crucial since CFPCGP cannot fully provide for VeggieRX’s budget. Therefore, the one negotiating for the project’s eligibility for AFRI-EWD should emphasize its adherence to the latter’s goals.

References

The U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023a). . National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Web.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023b). . National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Web.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2023c). . Web.

The White House. (2022). Biden-Harris national security strategy. Web.

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Reference

IvyPanda. (2025, January 25). Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants. https://ivypanda.com/essays/funding-opportunities-for-veggierx-choosing-between-national-afri-ewd-and-cfpcgp-grants/

Work Cited

"Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants." IvyPanda, 25 Jan. 2025, ivypanda.com/essays/funding-opportunities-for-veggierx-choosing-between-national-afri-ewd-and-cfpcgp-grants/.

References

IvyPanda. (2025) 'Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants'. 25 January. (Accessed: 19 February 2025).

References

IvyPanda. 2025. "Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants." January 25, 2025. https://ivypanda.com/essays/funding-opportunities-for-veggierx-choosing-between-national-afri-ewd-and-cfpcgp-grants/.

1. IvyPanda. "Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants." January 25, 2025. https://ivypanda.com/essays/funding-opportunities-for-veggierx-choosing-between-national-afri-ewd-and-cfpcgp-grants/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Funding Opportunities for VeggieRX: Choosing Between National AFRI-EWD and CFPCGP Grants." January 25, 2025. https://ivypanda.com/essays/funding-opportunities-for-veggierx-choosing-between-national-afri-ewd-and-cfpcgp-grants/.

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