California Nutrition Incentive Program (CA) Grant

California Nutrition Incentive Program (CA) Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: California Department of Food & Agriculture
Last Updated: October 01, 2025

Summary

The California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) aims to enhance access to fresh, California-grown fruits and vegetables for CalFresh shoppers. Through this initiative, eligible entities can propose projects to distribute nutrition incentives at direct marketing outlets, targeting low-income communities with high diet-related disease rates. The program will combine selected proposals into a unified application for federal funding, ensuring a two-phase approach to maximize outreach and support for nutrition benefit clients.

Overview

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Office of Farm to Fork is currently accepting proposals for the California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) competitive grant solicitation. Authority for CNIP is derived from California Food and Agriculture Code Section 49010-49016. CNIP was established to encourage the purchase and consumption of fresh California grown fruits, vegetables, and nuts by nutrition benefit clients. For this CNIP Request for Proposal (RFP), CDFA is seeking project proposals from eligible entities to distribute nutrition incentives to CalFresh shoppers using their benefits to purchase fresh, California grown fruits and vegetables at direct marketing outlets (Certified Farmers’ Markets, Community Supported Agriculture programs, and farm stands) and small businesses in California. CalFresh shoppers should be able to receive the incentive at the time of purchase. Projects that reach low-access areas and low-income populations, particularly communities where a large proportion of the population is eligible for CalFresh and experiences high rates of diet-related diseases, will be prioritized. The intent of this RFP is to select project proposals to combine into a unified state application for CDFA’s submission to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). In order to align with the timing of the GusNIP program, CDFA intends to split this opportunity into two distinct project periods: an initial, state-only funded round that will cover the gap between prior CNIP grant periods and the upcoming federal grant period and a second, state-federal funded award in partnership with GusNIP (contingent upon CDFA receiving a federal GusNIP award).

Eligibility

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