Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork Festival offers grant to minority-owned small businesses

With the help of a grant geared toward minority-owned small businesses, the Sacramento Farm-to-Fork Festival hopes to continue “expanding the table” of the food and agriculture community.

The annual food and music festival is offering the Vendor Impact Grant for a second year in a row, and plans to double the number of recipients — now, 10 small businesses majority-owned by anyone who identifies as a person of color and/or LGBTQ will receive the grant.

“We talk a lot about expanding the table — we’re not taking anything away, we’re adding people,” said Sonya Bradley, chief of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Visit Sacramento. “It helps tell a larger story about the Sacramento region. Adding this just gives even more flavor to what we try to bring to the Farm-to-Fork Festival.”

For the 10 recipients, the grant will fund participation at the Farm-to-Fork Street Festival on Sept. 24, which typically costs around $2,500. Recipients will also benefit from promotion at the festival, Bradley explained, which welcomes around 150,000 people over two days, highlighting small food and agriculture producers.

Through the grant, Bradley said, the Farm-to-Fork festival hopes to foster a more inclusive experience for all festivalgoers by providing greater opportunity to historically underrepresented groups.

“We call ourselves America’s farm-to-fork capital because there’s a whole food and (agriculture) ecosystem here in the Sacramento region,” Bradley said. “So many people are a part of it, but even in America’s farm-to-fork capital, I think there was a time when people may have felt excluded.”

In addition to identifying as a person of color and/or LGBTQ, applicants must demonstrate a financial need and agree to abide by the Farm-to-Fork vendor guidelines. Applicants must not have previously participated as a vendor in the festival or have previously received the grant.

Applications for the grant, which is sponsored by Bank of America and distributed by Visit Sacramento, are available online and will remain open until Aug. 12.

“Our job is to bring in visitors,” Bradley said. “By showing visitors who may be at the festival, as well as residents, that there are so many different local businesses, that helps really show why we’re America’s farm-to-fork capital.”

Recipients of the grant will participate in the Farm-to-Fork Street Festival located on Capitol Mall from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sept. 24.