Apply for the LFPA Plus Program

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program Plus (LFPA Plus) awards funds to groups who will buy food from socially disadvantaged farmers and producers to provide to underserved communities.

Who May Apply?

Applicants must be part of the local food production and distribution system, including entities that are engaged in the business of production agriculture, farming, or seafood production, processing and distribution, the emergency food distribution network, community and food organizations, school meal programming (including summer meal sites), and including organizations that provide business planning, technical assistance and information technology services.

Applicants are limited to a single proposal. Open to:

• Food hubs and other Massachusetts aggregators,
• Food pantries, soup kitchens, and pantry networks,
• Municipalities, producer cooperatives or informal groups of producers with a fiduciary agent,
• Community health centers, mutual aid networks, faith-based organizations, senior centers,
• For-profit and non-profit grocery stores, as well as food cooperatives, small food retailers such as corner stores, convenience stores, farmers' markets, mobile food markets, or retail food outlets operated by an emergency food program or food hub.

Request for Response (RFR)

See “downloads” below to download the Request for Response (RFR). This document outlines and explains all details, requirements, and instructions for the LFPA Plus.

The LFPA Plus FY23 RFR and other supporting documentation and information is posted openly on Commbuys under Bid # BD-24-1002-1003-001-89604.

Two informational webinars will be provided, where questions may be asked will be held for interested applicants on the dates listed below. Please contact Rebecca Davidson at Rebecca.Davidson@mass.gov to request access to the webinar if you have trouble with the following links. 

Spanish interpretation will be available for this webinar. Please inform us in advance if you need Spanish interpretation by emailing Rebecca.Davidson@mass.gov. 

Interpretación en Español estará disponible para este seminario web. Infórmenos con anticipación si necesita interpretación en español enviando un correo electrónico a Rebecca.Davidson@mass.gov

• Recording of June 22nd webinar/Grabación de seminario web del 22 de junio
• Recording of July 11th webinar/Grabación de seminario web del 11 de julio
  Passcode: M$x6M1D8

 The suggested dollar value of projects is between $50,000 and $1 million per project. A predominance of funding requested must be spent on food purchases. LFPA Plus funding may only be used for the purchase of unprocessed or minimally processed food, as well as food storage and food distribution costs directly related to the purchase of food.

Examples of Eligible Projects:

• Food box benefit delivery 
  • Benefit is per individual, with a suggested $40-50 benefit per individual
• Distribution through non-profit organizations, schools, or other groups engaged in food distribution
• Choice-based benefit delivery, as long as there is no food instrument, such as coupons or vouchers

Examples of Ineligible Projects:

• Proposals that require participants to sign up or have conditions for participation.
• Proposals that do not include 51% or more of their budget allocated for food purchases.
• Proposals that don't include local or regional food, and local or regional producers as defined in the RFR.
• Proposals that include costs not directly related to the purchase, distribution, or storage of food (i.e. personnel, indirect, etc.) 
• Distribution of meals with local foods. Please note, recipients can include schools as food distribution points, however the food distributed is not intended to supplement the National School Lunch Program (“NSLP”). Prepared meals are unallowable under USDA LFPA Plus rules. 
• Projects that do not meet the goals of the LFPA Plus program as outlined in the RFR.

Environmental Justice

Projects that are located within a mapped EJ Population with demonstrated positive impacts to that community and demonstrated support from the community will receive additional points.

To determine whether your proposed project will impact an EJ Population, visit the Environmental Justice MapViewer. If you have any questions about Environmental Justice, please contact Rebecca.Davidson@Mass.gov, or visit MDAR's Environmental Justice Program page.