Body of News Release
San Rafael, CA – Informed by community feedback, 21 nonprofit programs in Marin County are splitting about $1.6 million in tax-funded grants designed to support all facets of Marin food systems, ranging from school gardens to community kitchens. This program was approved by voters in 2022 to receive 6% of Marin County Parks Measure A funding, or approximately $800,000 a year.
Marin County Parks received 47 applications in fall 2023 from groups looking to address important local food systems needs through the Food, Agriculture, and Resilient Ecosystems (FARE) grant program. Through FARE, competitive matching grants are provided to winning applicants throughout Marin to support sustainable food systems, climate-beneficial agriculture management, and improvement of natural resource values on working lands.
On July 30, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved the list of FARE grant recipients. The selected projects include activities in all geographic areas of the county.
Jamillah Jordan, Marin County’s Director of Equity, said it was important that the FARE selection process placed prioritization in the hands of local communities by asking applicants to describe how their project and program ideas originated from homegrown planning efforts, addressed disparities in access to resources such as nutritious food and farming opportunities, and factored in existing partnerships.
“FARE staff took the time and care to coordinate with other grantmakers like the Office of Equity so funding awards to communities complemented one another,” Jordan said. “The FARE selection process centered the needs and perspectives of local communities by asking applicants to describe how their project and program ideas originated from community planning efforts, addressed local disparities in access to resources such as nutritious food and farming opportunities, and supported existing partnerships. This approach resulted in a more equitable and inclusive process, which ultimately will yield better outcomes for communities.”
FARE is a result of the 2022 passage of Measure A, the countywide quarter-cent sales tax otherwise known as the Marin Parks, Open Space, and Sustainable Agriculture Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance. By law, a portion of Measure A funds must be used to support sustainable food systems.
Examining needs through an equity lens, Parks worked with the Marin Food Policy Council, the Marin Community Foundation, and the Marin County Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Collaborative to identify new opportunities to assist those in need. Parks also worked with its own County of Marin teammates – Jordan’s Office of Equity, the Department of Agriculture, Weights & Measures, the UC Cooperative Extension (Marin UCCE) – and listened to community input throughout the process. The County’s Race Equity Budget Tool was utilized as well.
The partnership uncovered significant gaps in funding needed to advance and sustain the local programs, said Parks’ Government and External Affairs Coordinator Kevin Wright.
“Lots of them were programs we love including our neighborhood and school gardens, nutritious food programs, and opportunities to grow more food locally and incorporate local food into programs like senior meals and school lunches,” Wright said. “Voters approved a competitive grant program that is perfectly situated to help address these critical funding gaps. We are proud to invest in areas that voters identified as high priorities.”
Measure A funding for FARE is projected to total $7.2 million, or $800,000 annually, over the next nine years.