Grants for Transporting Healthy Food Now Available

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One reason many Latino families across the country don’t have healthy foods at home is they lack access to stores that stock fresh items. Getting fresh produce into stores is linked to helping kids eat healthier. Knowing this, CSX, a national supplier of rail-based freight transportation, has teamed up with The Conservation Fund, a non-profit, and announced a program of grants aimed at improving the transportation and distribution of fresh, healthy food to communities in need.

Grants will be made available to entities that distribute fresh produce and/or perishable food in the 23 states where CSX operates. The grants can support a range of activities related to transportation such as:

-Acquiring refrigerated vehicles for direct delivery to markets;
-Financing “veggie vans” to bring fresh food to isolated communities;
-Providing better access to food hubs or other sites where produce, dairy, seafood and meats can be stored safely for distribution; or
-Purchasing produce boxes and cold storage bins to keep unsold food fresh for the next day’s farmers market or wholesale purchase.

Grant applications are due October 1, 2014. To download a grant application and see more information about the program, click here.