Local Foods Local Places Funding

Local Foods, Local Places helps cities and towns across the country protect the environment and human health by engaging with local partners to reinvest in existing neighborhoods as they develop local food systems. In 2019, the program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), EPA, and the Northern Border Regional Commission.

Read more about the program. 

Local Foods, Local Places supports locally led, community-driven efforts to protect air and water quality, preserve open space and farmland, boost economic opportunities for local farmers and businesses, improve access to healthy local food, and promote childhood wellness.

Through Local Foods, Local Places, partner communities have worked on projects such as:

• Opening year-round, downtown markets featuring foods from local farmers.
• Planning cooperative grocery stores to help revitalize small-town main streets.
• Creating centrally located community kitchens or food hubs to aggregate and market local foods.
• Starting business incubators to help entrepreneurs launch food-related businesses on main streets.
• Making it easier for people to walk or bicycleto farmers markets and local restaurants.
• Helping schoolchildren to grow their own food, and making healthy local food accessible to families, including via SNAP (Supplemental NutritionAssistance Program) benefits.
• Developing community gardens in walkable, transit-accessible places.Local Foods, Local Places Featured at Food for Tomorrow 2016
  

Local Foods, Local Places builds on the ARC-EPA-USDA Livable Communities in Appalachia partnership, which worked to promote economic development, preserve rural lands, and increase access to locally grown food in Appalachian towns and rural communities.

Many of the communities we work with through Local Foods, Local Places are small towns or rural communities. To find more of our resources for rural places and learn about how revitalization can help towns strengthen their economies, improve quality of life, and protect the environment and human health, see our Smart Growth in Small Towns and Rural Communities page.