Community Food and Health (Scotland) small grants scheme

Funding from £500 to £3000

Community Food and Health (Scotland) has an annual small grants scheme available for groups and agencies in Scotland who wish to improve access to, and take up of a healthy, varied and balanced diet. Grants from £500 to £3000 are available and grant recipients are expected to spend their grant money within one year.

The 2008 small grant scheme is now open

See below for details of how to apply. Applications must be returned to us by 5 pm on 27 June 2008. Faxed and emailed applications will not be accepted.

Applicants will be informed if their application has been successful or unsuccessful by mid-August. We aim to send out grants to successful applicants by September (we will need a satisfactory reference and an acceptance of grant conditions form signed by the applicant before we can send out grant money).

The grant scheme is very popular. In 2007, less than one in five applicants were successful. See small grant recipients 2007/2008 to find out who received a grant in 2007.

What will we fund?

All applications must involve working with or within Scotland’s low-income communities to improve access to and take up of a healthy, varied and balanced diet.

All applications must tackle one or more of the barriers to healthy eating that were first outlined in the Scottish Diet Action Plan (1996). These are:

Availability - such as the lack of access to fruit and vegetables of an acceptable quality and cost
Affordability - such as the cost of getting to the shops as well as the cost of shopping
Skills - such as the lack of confidence and skills for cooking or shopping
Culture - such as long established dietary habits and reluctance to experiment with new foods

All applications must be for the costs of a new food activity or for developing the range, scale or sustainability of current food activity. We also accept applications for pilot projects or feasibility studies.

We will give priority to applications that show that they will be able to sustain their food activity or learning from their food activity in the future. We will also prioritise applications that show that their intended food activity is needed and wanted by those who will take part in it.

What we won't fund

We will not fund the same or similar activity that we have funded before for the same group working in the same area
We will not fund work that has been previously funded from another source
We will not fund regular running costs to continue work that you are doing already – such as staff costs, rent, utility bills, etc

Who can apply?

We welcome applications from a wide range of groups and agencies working with or within low-income communities. (We recognise that ‘community’ also means ‘groups with a common interest’ as well as people that live or work in the same area). We are keen to encourage applications from all areas and types of organisations. We particularly encourage applications from community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

We welcome applications from new or existing groups and agencies, including from those that are new to community food activity and from those who have carried it out before. We also welcome applications from those who have applied for a grant from us before - whether successful or unsuccessful.

We will give priority to those groups or agencies linked to or working (or planning to work) in partnership with other agencies or whose planned project is part of a local plan or strategy, such as Food and Health Strategies, Joint Health Improvement Plans, etc. Partnerships could include groups such as: Community Planning, Community Health Partnerships or other groups appropriate to the applicant’s organisation.

Who can’t apply?

Individuals and/or private enterprises cannot apply for a grant from us.

How to apply

You can download the application pack here or you can contact us to request a pack.

All pdf documents can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free to download from www.adobe.com

The application pack:

1. Small grant scheme application form (PDF 95kb)
small grant scheme application form - large print (PDF 120kb)
small grant scheme application form - word document (1023 kb)

2. Small grant scheme 'Information for Applicants' (guidelines) (PDF 404 kb)
3. Special grants edition of Fare Choice newsletter (PDF 1213 kb)
4. Sample acceptance of grant conditions (PDF 127 kb)
5. Sample small grant scheme evaluation form (PDF 136kb)

Please read the Information for Applicants before you fill in the application form. We also strongly recommend that you read the special edition newsletter. This will give you a taste of what last year's successful grant recipients got up to. The sample conditions and evaluation form will give an idea of the process if your application is successful. If you would like to discuss your grant ideas, please contact Kim.

If you would like to be sure that we have received your application form, please contact us (include all your contact details and your organisation's name in your email) and we will return your email within one week.

For information on funding and links to advice on filling in application forms see Advice and information on fundraising.