School Food Infrastructure Fund: Step 3. Before you apply

Step 3. Before you apply

Review and consider the following information before you apply.

Your responsibilities as an initial recipient

As an initial recipient, you’ll be responsible for:

• managing a transparent and open decision-making process to select the ultimate recipients of funding — organizations that will purchase and install infrastructure and/or equipment to expand the reach and impact of school food programming in Canada
• running the selection process of the ultimate recipients independently from direct government intervention (and in no event acting as an Agent of the Crown in distributing funds)
• monitoring ultimate recipients and their obligations as outlined in the funding agreement between the initial recipient and the ultimate recipient
• sending reports to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) on financials and the aggregate project results achieved

Priority must be given to ultimate recipients who are serving schools attended by children and youth from lower-income families as well as visible minority and Indigenous communities. The lack of access to food disproportionately impacts children and youth from those groups.

How we assess your application

All applications will be selected in a fair, accessible, and transparent manner. They’ll undergo a competitive review process and will be evaluated based on their merit and the extent to which they meet the following criteria.

Ability to further distribute funds

Your capacity, governance structure, partners, established networks, and facilities that will be leveraged in order to further distribute funding within a limited time frame.

Ability to manage a selection process

Your capacity to manage a transparent, and open decision-making process to select the ultimate recipients and corresponding projects or activities to be funded.

Capacity to manage contribution funding

Your ability to develop and implement an accountability and management framework; manage written funding agreements with ultimate recipients; and manage and leverage internal controls to ensure funding is provided to ultimate recipients for the intended purposes.

Expertise in school food programming

Your experience working with a variety of local not-for-profit organizations supporting school food programming in many different low-income communities within a province/territory or across the country.

Well-established networks

Your knowledge of, experience with, and access to partners and networks (provincial, territorial, or pan-Canadian/national) with community-based, not-for-profit organizations supporting school food programming; networks should allow for broad geographic reach within a province or territory or across the country.

Impact on school food access

Your understanding of how infrastructure/equipment will increase the capacity of community organizations in diverse locations to produce, process, store, and/or distribute food in order to increase the reach of school food programming.

Experience supporting at-risk groups

Your ability to ensure funded projects or activities support school food programming that reaches low-income communities, Indigenous groups (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or individuals from other under-represented or marginalized groups, including visible minorities, youth, women, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+, and official language minority communities.

Reporting capacity

Your ability to collect data to measure and report on distribution of funds and to track project outcomes as they relate to the ultimate recipients involved.

Official language capacity

Your ability to provide services and communication materials of equal quality in both official languages as necessary to communicate with potential ultimate recipients in the official language of their choice.

Additional assessment criteria

We’ll also consider the overall quality of your application, and the extent to which your application will meet, at a minimum, the following:

• Your proposed activities including expected results and outcomes support program objective and priorities
• Your proposed activities and expenditures are eligible, reasonable, and required to meet the project objectives
• You have or have access to the qualifications (such as capability/capacity including the necessary technical, financial and managerial capacities) and track record required to complete the project
• All your sources of funding for the project to be funded under the program are identified
• You’ve established robust organizational governance practices, including internal policies related to:
  • conflict of interest
  • values and ethics
  • anti-discrimination
  • anti-harassment

Please note that even if your project meets all eligibility criteria, the submission of an application creates no obligation on the part of the Minister or of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada officials to provide funding for the proposed project. The Minister retains discretion to determine, based on other public policy and public interest considerations, whether an application that meets the criteria identified in the guide will ultimately receive funding.

Considerations

M-30 Act (Quebec organizations only)

The Province of Quebec’s M-30 legislation may apply to Quebec-based applicants only. It is the Act Respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (R.S.Q., c. M-30).

More information on the Act is available online or by contacting the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ) at dpci@mapaq.gouv.qc.ca.

All Quebec-based organizations will have to address this matter and demonstrate their compliance with the Act during the application assessment process and before they enter into a contribution agreement.

Intellectual property

If your project is approved for funding, the contribution agreement will contain an intellectual property clause confirming that the title to all intellectual property in any materials created or developed by or for the recipient under the agreement will be owned by the recipient or a third party. However, the recipient must grant to AAFC the right to utilize any material or information produced, for AAFC and other Government of Canada purposes.