Farmers’ Market Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Support Grants

These funds are intended to support the participation of farmers’ markets in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP.) Specifically, the goals of FMSSG are to increase SNAP accessibility and participation at farmers’ markets, and support the establishment, expansion, and promotion of SNAP/Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) services at farmers’ markets.

Nonprofits and institutes of higher education.

Farmers and participants in SNAP

FNS pre-screens applications to ensure they contain all required information. Applications that do not include complete copies of forms SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B, SF LLL, and (in the case of corporations, regardless of whether they are for-profit or non-profit) AD-3030, are considered non-responsive and eliminated from further consideration. Applications that do not include all required information, as described in the RFA, FNS-10-545A, and FNS-10-545B have points deducted during the evaluation process.

Following the initial screening process, FNS may divide applications into two or more groups – based on whether they are submitted by individual organizations or partnerships, scope of proposed projects, and/or similar characteristics – so that similar applications may be compared against each other.

FNS assembles panels to review and score each application based on technical merits. The panels evaluate the proposals based on how well they address the evaluation criteria described in the RFA. The panels recommend the highest scoring applications for grant awards. The Selecting Official reserves the right to award a grant based solely on scoring, but may also consider agency priorities, program balance, available funding, geographical representation, or project diversity.

When considering whether to award a grant, FNS may request that proposed Project Narratives and/or Budgets documents be revised. FNS contacts applicants to negotiate these revisions. Alternatively, applicants may choose not to revise their project proposal.

During past awards, the following criteria were used to evaluate applications for FMSSG funds: Goals/Purpose (12 points); Approach (40 points);
Workplan; Personnel; Resources (Non-personnel resources, such as land, building, equipment, supplies, etc.); Sustainability;
Partnerships; Budget (20 points); Impact (20 points); and whether the project activities take place in SNAP Priority areas (30 points);