While US farmers do a fantastic job at producing food there are still some people and food pantries across the country who struggle with hunger issues. This is called food insecurity and in 2008, 14.6% of US households at some point during the year did not have enough food to keep all members of their family fed.

As a way to combat this problem USDA has allocated Five Million dollars in funding to the Hunger Free Communities Grant. This grant is available for communities, agencies providing social services, public health organizations, educational entities and other non-profit entities such as food banks. Funding can be used for research, planning, and hunger relief activities including but not limited to: food distribution, community outreach, initiatives that improve access to food, and the development of new resources and strategies to reduce or prevent hunger and food insecurity. Applicants can only apply once but there are two different areas their proposals could fall into: planning and assessment grants and then implementation grants. USDA does anticipate this grant program being available in future years.

Projects can last up to two years, and there is a 20 percent matching requirement. Grant Applications are due September 1, 2010 and more information can be found at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/outreach/documents/hfc_rfa.pdf