Thirty-five nonprofit programs from across Marin County will soon receive funds to support all dimensions of Marin food systems, ranging from school and community gardens to prescribed fire on working lands and countywide food security planning.
Through the Food, Agriculture and Resilient Ecosystems (FARE) grant program, competitive matching grants are provided to selected applicants throughout Marin to support sustainable food systems, climate-beneficial agriculture management, school and community gardens and improvement of natural resource values on working lands.
Following recommendations from the Parks and Open Space Commission, the Marin County Board of Supervisors allocated $1,416,835 million in competitive matching grants from FARE program during the Board’s April 14 meeting.
The source of the funding is Marin County Parks Measure A, a quarter-cent countywide sales tax passed by voters in 2022. By local ordinance, a portion of the revenue generated by the Marin Parks, Open Space, and Sustainable Agriculture Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance must be used to support sustainable food systems.
Parks staff received 47 applications requesting a total of nearly $4.3 million in fall 2025 from groups looking to address important food systems needs through the FARE program. Examining needs through an equity lens, Parks worked with the Marin Food Policy Council, the Marin Community Foundation, and the Marin County Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Collaborative to identify new opportunities to assist those in need.
Parks staff also worked with its own County of Marin teammates – the Office of Equity, the Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, the UC Cooperative Extension (Marin UCCE) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – and listened to community input throughout the process. The County’s Race Equity Budget Tool was utilized as well.
The selected projects were chosen for their evidence or potential to fill a gap that other funding does not serve, to benefit community members from vulnerable populations, and to build upon strong partnerships.
Applications were received for a wide variety of projects – community gardens, local food supply sustainability, increasing access to farmland for underserved communities, carbon capture farming practices, environmental restoration on working lands, improving ecosystem services for water quality and soil health, wildlife corridors and habitat improvements.
Heading into this second round of FARE funding, Marin County Parks’ Kevin Wright said the County is seeing progress in areas important to Marin residents.
“Over the past three years, FARE is supporting a record number of local gardens, and a wider variety of food is becoming available to communities through local kitchens and markets,” said Wright, Parks’ Government and External Affairs Manager. “FARE is helping new farmers grow food locally and more residents are experiencing farming and land stewardship activities. Holistically, FARE has also helped catalyze momentum on a countywide food security plan to move from responding to food emergencies to long-term food access and nutrition for all residents.”
Measure A funding for FARE is projected to total $4.8 million, or $800,000 annually, over the next six years. The application period for this round of FARE grants was mid-July through mid-September 2025. All FARE proposals must include a matching contribution – any combination of funds and/or in-kind resources, such as volunteer time or donated goods. There is no minimum amount or proportion for matching contributions.