Fair Food Network and Michigan Fitness Foundation to Receive Funding to Help Families get Healthy Fruits and Vegetables 

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, announced that two Michigan-based community organizations received USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program COVID Relief and Response (GusCRR) grants. These grants were made possible by Senator Stabenow’s leadership to secure additional nutrition assistance in the federal COVID-19 packages. This funding was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which passed in December 2020.  

“The Fair Food Network and Michigan Fitness Foundation play an important role in helping Michigan families get healthy fruits and vegetables,” said Chairwoman Stabenow. “So many people were already struggling to feed their families and the pandemic made things even worse. I made a strong push to increase food assistance for families which is making a difference during this critical time for families across Michigan and our country.”  

USDA awarded GusCRR grants to two projects in Michigan: 

Fair Food Network, Michigan was awarded $4.997 million to increase the reach and availability of “Double Up Food Bucks” to low-income communities in areas of the state hardest hit by the pandemic, and bring an additional $3.75 million in fruits and vegetables to the tables of Michigan families across the two years of this grant. 

Michigan Physical Fitness, Health and Sports Foundation, Inc. was awarded $545,891 to expand their current GusNIP project, Michigan Farm to Family: Community Supported Agriculture, in order to provide more equitable access and address hardships from the pandemic. The program incentivizes SNAP participants to purchase fruits and vegetables from community-supported agriculture (CSA) outlets over four years of this grant. 

To find out more information about USDA’s GusCRR grant recipients, please visit the USDA’s website here. 

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