The Mazon Canada School Food Infrastructure Grant (SFIG) supports the purchase and installation of infrastructure and equipment that increases the capacity of non-profit community organizations to produce, process, store, and distribute food for school food programs.
Funding for this project has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) through the School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF). Read more at our blog post here and the Government of Canada's news release here.
Please note: We at Mazon Canada understand that, compared to our usual grant applications, this is a lengthy set of instructions and funding conditions! Due to the funding structure that the Government of Canada has assigned to the School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF) through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), we have designed our application and granting process to meet their standards and requirements. Please take the time to read through the instructions before starting your application. To respect your time, you will first be asked to fill out an Eligibility Form, and eligible programs will then be able to access the full application form.
Also note: If there is a specific reason Mazon Canada should expedite the review of your application, please email us at robbie@mazoncanada.ca to let us know. For example: we are aware that there can be challenges in shipping equipment to the North (e.g., securing a shipping container by a certain date) so we will do our best to expedite any funding requests that come in for organizations in the North.
GOALS OF THE SCHOOL FOOD INFRASTRUCTURE FUND:
- to support the purchase and installation of infrastructure and equipment that increases the capacity of community organizations to produce, process, store, and distribute food for school food programs
- strengthen wider community and local food systems through investments in infrastructure that expand the reach and impact of school food programming
- help ensure that children have the nutritious meals they need to learn, grow, and reach their full potential
- priority to be given to those already serving schools attended by children and youth from lower-income families as well as visible minority and Indigenous communities
APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:
- Be registered as a non-profit or charity
- Have some experience running a food program
- Have an existing relationship(s) with schools/school boards (formal or informal) that would enable implementation of School Food Infrastructure Funding
OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
- All infrastructure/equipment must be used to support the delivery of school food programs
- The term "school food program" refers primarily to programs that provide meals and/or snacks to children and/or youth in grades 1-12 (elementary school or secondary school), where the food is eaten/consumed at school, by students, during school hours (or in the hour before or after the school day), typically at no-to-low cost. Please contact us to clarify, if you are unsure whether your program is a good fit!
- All infrastructure/equipment included in the proposal must be acquired and installed by March 31st, 2026
- All infrastructure/equipment included in the proposal must have an expected useful life until at least March 31st, 2028
- All infrastructure/equipment included in this proposal must be eligible costs (see list here)
- Under certain circumstances, Mazon Canada will not be able to cover refundable taxes. If this is a barrier to the implementation of your project, please be in touch*
- You cannot request funding for equipment/infrastructure items that you have already had funded through another SFIF-affiliated organization
- Unless otherwise agreed upon with Mazon Canada, your organization is prohibited from selling, disposing, transferring ownership of any items purchased through this grant until at least March 31st, 2028
- Infrastructure and equipment may be hosted and operate on school property (with the proper agreements between your organization and the school), but full ownership of the infrastructure and equipment must be retained by your non-profit organization
- Nothing in the proposal includes renovating any aspect of school-owned property or school-owned infrastructure. Renovations to non-profit owned property may be eligible!
- If you accept funds for this same infrastructure/equipment request from another funding organization, you will notify Mazon Canada via granting@mazoncanada.ca within 48 hours to help avoid duplicate funding
*Your organization may or may not be aware that you may be eligible to file quarterly for a government rebate for some sales taxes (the amount varies based on incorporation status and province/territory). You can read more here. While the government funding that enables this grant program cannot be used to cover refundable taxes, Mazon Canada may be able to draw from our own budget to cover some or all of these costs - we will provide an update via email when we inform you of the outcome of your grant application. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
TIMELINE:
DEADLINE: Applications will close at midnight on Monday June 9th, 2025. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis starting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025.
Please email granting@mazoncanada.ca if you'll need an extension for any reason (it's no big deal!). We can allow extensions for up to 7 days after the deadline.
DECISIONS: We aim to be in touch with you by mid-July at the latest with an update on your application status. If there is a reason it would be helpful to expedite review of your application (e.g., deadline for shipping), please email us to let us know.
NEXT STEPS: We may request follow-up information about your application. If you are successful in receiving a School Food Infrastructure Grant, we will reach out to you with a Granting Agreement for both parties to sign. You will be required to submit a Baseline Report two weeks after signing a Granting Agreement, an Interim Report by March 31st, 2026 and a Final Report by July 1st, 2026.
GRANT AMOUNTS: You can request up to $200,000.
APPLICATION FORM INFORMATION:
If it is helpful, you may review all the application questions for preparation purposes: download them as a .docx file here (please use ONLY for preparation)
You'll need to upload your most recent financial statements, so please keep them handy!
Throughout the application, you may be asked for information about numbers of clients served, dollar amounts, percentages, or other quantities. For all of these questions, estimates are fully acceptable! Where text-based answers are requested, we do not impose word counts, but we encourage shorter answers where possible!
GRANTEE FEEDBACK
Our aim is to build a transparent grant-making process with two competing goals: (A) simplifying the process where possible to respect the busy schedules of non-profit staff and volunteers, and (B) creating enough space for applicants to accurately represent the value of their work, and its importance to their clients.
At the bottom of this form, we ask for feedback on our application process! This is optional but we appreciate it so much - we've changed a lot about our processes based on past grantee feedback. If you have any questions or would like to offer feedback in a conversation, please be in touch with our Partnerships Lead, Robbie Solway, at robbie@mazoncanada.ca
HOW DOES MAZON DECIDE WHICH ORGANIZATIONS WILL RECEIVE FUNDING?
Assessment of your application is based on internal metrics. The three primary categories of evaluation are:
Impact (does the project’s impact seem effectively aligned with the School Food Infrastructure Grant’s goals and priorities?)
Community-Responsiveness (is the project responding efficiently to a clear need in school(s) and/or community? Are community partners and/or schools involved in designing or coordinating the project?)
Feasibility (does the project seem feasible, realistic, and within the applicant’s capacity? Has the organization demonstrated they can accomplish the work involved?)
When making funding decisions between eligible applicants, more specifically, Mazon Canada prioritizes organizations that:
- Are community-led, community-responsive, and/or have leadership that share lived experience with students
- Are connected to community, local networks, or regional supply chains
- Operate in remote or rural localities, in a Nutrition North catchment area, or on reserve
- Support specific marginalized, lower-income, and/or food insecure populations
- Propose a project is feasible and realistic within the capacity of the organization and the school food program
- Propose a project that is clearly justified, meets clear needs, and has clear impact
- [HIGH PRIORITY] Align with at least one of the grant's school-based priorities (serving more students, more schools, or more meals; improving access to culturally preferred food or to nutritious food; strengthening or building partnerships; increasing program reliability)
- [LOWER PRIORITY] Align in some way with the grant's community-based priorities (improving community food security in Indigenous communities, Black communities, lower-income communities, or other marginalized communities; strengthening local food systems; supporting local economic development through food system investments; enhancing environmental sustainability in food production, processing, or distribution)
School Food Infrastructure Grants
The Mazon Canada School Food Infrastructure Grant (SFIG) supports the purchase and installation of infrastructure and equipment that increases the capacity of non-profit community organizations to produce, process, store, and distribute food for school food programs.
Funding for this project has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) through the School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF). Read more at our blog post here and the Government of Canada's news release here.
Please note: We at Mazon Canada understand that, compared to our usual grant applications, this is a lengthy set of instructions and funding conditions! Due to the funding structure that the Government of Canada has assigned to the School Food Infrastructure Fund (SFIF) through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), we have designed our application and granting process to meet their standards and requirements. Please take the time to read through the instructions before starting your application. To respect your time, you will first be asked to fill out an Eligibility Form, and eligible programs will then be able to access the full application form.
Also note: If there is a specific reason Mazon Canada should expedite the review of your application, please email us at robbie@mazoncanada.ca to let us know. For example: we are aware that there can be challenges in shipping equipment to the North (e.g., securing a shipping container by a certain date) so we will do our best to expedite any funding requests that come in for organizations in the North.
GOALS OF THE SCHOOL FOOD INFRASTRUCTURE FUND:
- to support the purchase and installation of infrastructure and equipment that increases the capacity of community organizations to produce, process, store, and distribute food for school food programs
- strengthen wider community and local food systems through investments in infrastructure that expand the reach and impact of school food programming
- help ensure that children have the nutritious meals they need to learn, grow, and reach their full potential
- priority to be given to those already serving schools attended by children and youth from lower-income families as well as visible minority and Indigenous communities
APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA:
- Be registered as a non-profit or charity
- Have some experience running a food program
- Have an existing relationship(s) with schools/school boards (formal or informal) that would enable implementation of School Food Infrastructure Funding
OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
- All infrastructure/equipment must be used to support the delivery of school food programs
- The term "school food program" refers primarily to programs that provide meals and/or snacks to children and/or youth in grades 1-12 (elementary school or secondary school), where the food is eaten/consumed at school, by students, during school hours (or in the hour before or after the school day), typically at no-to-low cost. Please contact us to clarify, if you are unsure whether your program is a good fit!
- All infrastructure/equipment included in the proposal must be acquired and installed by March 31st, 2026
- All infrastructure/equipment included in the proposal must have an expected useful life until at least March 31st, 2028
- All infrastructure/equipment included in this proposal must be eligible costs (see list here)
- Under certain circumstances, Mazon Canada will not be able to cover refundable taxes. If this is a barrier to the implementation of your project, please be in touch*
- You cannot request funding for equipment/infrastructure items that you have already had funded through another SFIF-affiliated organization
- Unless otherwise agreed upon with Mazon Canada, your organization is prohibited from selling, disposing, transferring ownership of any items purchased through this grant until at least March 31st, 2028
- Infrastructure and equipment may be hosted and operate on school property (with the proper agreements between your organization and the school), but full ownership of the infrastructure and equipment must be retained by your non-profit organization
- Nothing in the proposal includes renovating any aspect of school-owned property or school-owned infrastructure. Renovations to non-profit owned property may be eligible!
- If you accept funds for this same infrastructure/equipment request from another funding organization, you will notify Mazon Canada via granting@mazoncanada.ca within 48 hours to help avoid duplicate funding
*Your organization may or may not be aware that you may be eligible to file quarterly for a government rebate for some sales taxes (the amount varies based on incorporation status and province/territory). You can read more here. While the government funding that enables this grant program cannot be used to cover refundable taxes, Mazon Canada may be able to draw from our own budget to cover some or all of these costs - we will provide an update via email when we inform you of the outcome of your grant application. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
TIMELINE:
DEADLINE: Applications will close at midnight on Monday June 9th, 2025. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis starting on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025.
Please email granting@mazoncanada.ca if you'll need an extension for any reason (it's no big deal!). We can allow extensions for up to 7 days after the deadline.
DECISIONS: We aim to be in touch with you by mid-July at the latest with an update on your application status. If there is a reason it would be helpful to expedite review of your application (e.g., deadline for shipping), please email us to let us know.
NEXT STEPS: We may request follow-up information about your application. If you are successful in receiving a School Food Infrastructure Grant, we will reach out to you with a Granting Agreement for both parties to sign. You will be required to submit a Baseline Report two weeks after signing a Granting Agreement, an Interim Report by March 31st, 2026 and a Final Report by July 1st, 2026.
GRANT AMOUNTS: You can request up to $200,000.
APPLICATION FORM INFORMATION:
If it is helpful, you may review all the application questions for preparation purposes: download them as a .docx file here (please use ONLY for preparation)
You'll need to upload your most recent financial statements, so please keep them handy!
Throughout the application, you may be asked for information about numbers of clients served, dollar amounts, percentages, or other quantities. For all of these questions, estimates are fully acceptable! Where text-based answers are requested, we do not impose word counts, but we encourage shorter answers where possible!
GRANTEE FEEDBACK
Our aim is to build a transparent grant-making process with two competing goals: (A) simplifying the process where possible to respect the busy schedules of non-profit staff and volunteers, and (B) creating enough space for applicants to accurately represent the value of their work, and its importance to their clients.
At the bottom of this form, we ask for feedback on our application process! This is optional but we appreciate it so much - we've changed a lot about our processes based on past grantee feedback. If you have any questions or would like to offer feedback in a conversation, please be in touch with our Partnerships Lead, Robbie Solway, at robbie@mazoncanada.ca
HOW DOES MAZON DECIDE WHICH ORGANIZATIONS WILL RECEIVE FUNDING?
Assessment of your application is based on internal metrics. The three primary categories of evaluation are:
Impact (does the project’s impact seem effectively aligned with the School Food Infrastructure Grant’s goals and priorities?)
Community-Responsiveness (is the project responding efficiently to a clear need in school(s) and/or community? Are community partners and/or schools involved in designing or coordinating the project?)
Feasibility (does the project seem feasible, realistic, and within the applicant’s capacity? Has the organization demonstrated they can accomplish the work involved?)
When making funding decisions between eligible applicants, more specifically, Mazon Canada prioritizes organizations that:
- Are community-led, community-responsive, and/or have leadership that share lived experience with students
- Are connected to community, local networks, or regional supply chains
- Operate in remote or rural localities, in a Nutrition North catchment area, or on reserve
- Support specific marginalized, lower-income, and/or food insecure populations
- Propose a project is feasible and realistic within the capacity of the organization and the school food program
- Propose a project that is clearly justified, meets clear needs, and has clear impact
- [HIGH PRIORITY] Align with at least one of the grant's school-based priorities (serving more students, more schools, or more meals; improving access to culturally preferred food or to nutritious food; strengthening or building partnerships; increasing program reliability)
- [LOWER PRIORITY] Align in some way with the grant's community-based priorities (improving community food security in Indigenous communities, Black communities, lower-income communities, or other marginalized communities; strengthening local food systems; supporting local economic development through food system investments; enhancing environmental sustainability in food production, processing, or distribution)