The Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program

The Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program (HRGP) funds energy efficient refrigeration units in corner stores, small businesses, and food donation programs in low-income or low-access areas throughout the state to stock California-grown fresh produce, nuts, dairy, meat, eggs, minimally processed, and culturally appropriate foods.

2023 Equipment Awards Announcement

The California Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Farm to Fork (CDFA-F2F) is excited to announce approximately $9 million in funding for 103 Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program projects across the state.

The purpose of the Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program is to improve access to healthy foods in underserved communities, while promoting California-grown agriculture. The program addresses food insecurity and the lack of accessible fresh fruits and vegetables among low-income Californians through supporting small businesses and food donation programs with refrigeration equipment to expand their selection of California-grown offerings. Additionally, the program encourages grantees to foster relationships with local farmers and ranchers.

These projects represent 43 corner stores and small businesses, 45 food donation programs, and 15 cities, counties, nonprofits, and government organizations providing technical assistance on behalf of an estimated 168 stores.

• View the full list of awarded 2023 projects
• View the 2023 Equipment RFA in English and Spanish

A Geographical Representation of 2023 Awardees

Click on the icons to learn more about each project.

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HRGP Technical Assistance Providers

CDFA–F2F held an RFP seeking technical assistance providers to offer outreach, application assistance, and technical expertise to equipment applicants in April 2022, and seven grant awards were announced in July 2022. View a copy of the RFP, Questions and CDFA responses, and a summary of comments and questions submitted and CDFA responses during the public comment period. Current grantees include:

• California Green Business Network, a nonprofit that will conduct statewide outreach and application assistance as well as work intensively in several sites, providing hands-on technical expertise
  • For assistance in the below regions/counties, visit greenbusinessca.org/hrgp
    • South Los Angeles
    • Pajaro Valley, Watsonville, San Benito, Salinas, and Soledad
    • Kern County
    • Lompoc and Guadalupe
    • Oakland
  • Para asistencia en las siguientes regiones/condados en español, visite greenbusinessca.org/hrgp-es/
• Community Environmental Council, a nonprofit that will conduct outreach and application assistance in low-income and low-food access parts of the south-central coast, in English, Spanish, and Mixtec
  • For assistance in the South-Central Coast region (Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties), contact HRGPsupport@cecmail.org.
• County of San Diego Agriculture, Weights & Measures, a county that will conduct outreach and application assistance for area stores in eight languages, leveraging food security work and familiarity with local small businesses
  • For assistance in the San Diego region, contact Monica Winters at Monica.Winters@sdcounty.ca.gov
• Contra Costa Health Services, a county that will provide outreach, application assistance and technical expertise for retailers in Bay Point
  • For assistance in the Contra Costa/Bay Point region, contact Denise Milosevich at Denise.Milosevich@cchealth.org
• Effecterra, a small business that will offer statewide refrigeration expertise to applicants and create a lasting, informative resource for the program
  • Effecterra is available to answer any unusual or remaining questions about equipment that cannot be answered using the resources provided in the RFA. Submit an inquiry here.
  • Note: Technical Assistance requests, via the form, will be gathered and responded to in batches, and common queries will be combined as FAQs to be shared as a reference for all current and future grantees. This does mean response times may not be immediate.
• High Sierra Energy Foundation, a nonprofit that will offer outreach and application assistance as well as technical expertise in 14-16 rural, hard to reach counties
  • For assistance in the Sierra region (Inyo, Mono, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Alpine, Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Nevada, Sierra, Yuba, Sutter, Butte, Plumas, and Lassen counties), contact the Sierra Healthy Refrigeration Team at info@sierrafridgegrant.org or visit their website, www.sierrafridgegrant.org.
• Porchlight Community Services, a nonprofit that will conduct outreach and application assistance targeting food donation programs in the San Diego region
  • For food donation programs and nonprofits seeking assistance in the San Diego region, visit porchlightcommunity.org

If your county/region is not listed above, there are Green Business Networks across the state who may be able to provide assistance. The map of CAGBN coverage can be found here.

Call for External Technical Reviewers:

The external technical review committee for the 2023 Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program includes individuals outside of CDFA-F2F who have expertise related to the program. Individuals interested in learning about participating in the external technical review process for the equipment grant round should contact CDFA-F2F at cafarmtofork@cdfa.ca.gov. Applicants to the 2023 Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program are not eligible to participate as technical reviewers.

HRGP 2019 Pilot Program:

Approximately $4.5 million in grants was awarded during the pilot program. See Round I Grant Awards and Round II Grant Awards for details.

View the research brief covering an overview of the results from the program evaluation. The full final report of the HRGP pilot program evaluation findings can be found here.

Please reach out to cafarmtofork@cdfa.ca.gov to be added to the email list for this program.