Illinois Local Food Infrastructure Grant

Grant Overview

Key Grant Information

Active

322 days left

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Illinois Local Food Infrastructure Grant

Funded by Illinois Department of Agriculture

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Grant Snapshot

Grant Award

$250,000

Application Deadline

March 27, 2027 322 days left

Eligible Region

Illinois, United States

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Eligibility and Benefits

Eligibility Criteria

• Illinois-based entity with home-base operations in state
• Proven by valid W-9 plus business registration
• Fewer than 50 concurrent employees over the year
• Seasonal or temporary spikes do not count toward threshold
• Entity stores or processes or aggregates value-added agricultural products
• Eligible entity types include farm plus cooperative plus food hub plus nonprofit
• Active registration in GATA Grantee Portal plus SAM.gov plus Euna
• SAM.gov technical issues: email AGR.Grants@illinois.gov and attempt submission
• Must not have received an LFIG grant under IDOA in the prior cycle
• FY2024 ISA-era recipients remain eligible; FY26 IDOA awardees ineligible for FY27

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Focus Areas

Local Food Infrastructure Value-Added Agriculture Food Hubs

What the Illinois Local Food Infrastructure Grant Actually Funds

LFIG is narrow by design. It pays for the physical infrastructure that moves food from field to table – not the labor to grow it, not the marketing to sell it, not the building that houses the equipment. The boundary that trips up most first-time applicants sits between value-added processing infrastructure and production agriculture. Hoop houses, irrigation systems, and animal housing all fall on the wrong side of that line. This table maps the boundary clearly.

If you are planning a hydroponic setup, the growing equipment likely qualifies. The structure housing it probably does not. Run your budget line by line against this table before you draft the narrative. A misclassified cost discovered by reviewers is harder to recover from than one caught in your own planning.

Who Won in 2024 and What They Built

The projects that received LFIG funding in the inaugural cycle were solving distribution and post-harvest bottlenecks at a community scale, not just buying equipment for their own operations. Nineteen recipients shared $1.8 million.^[2] Here is what four of them built and why it mattered.

The pattern across all four: infrastructure that creates shared access. None of them just bought better equipment for themselves. Each investment extended beyond the applicant’s own operation into the surrounding food system. That is the type of community impact argument the scoring rubric rewards most heavily.

How Applications Are Scored and What the Match Rule Means

Reviewers evaluate applications against a rubric rooted in the Illinois Administrative Code.^[7] Unlike grants that weight technical feasibility most heavily, LFIG puts Advancing Equity and Community Impact at the top. A sample scoresheet used by actual reviewers is available for download at illinoislfig.org/additional-resources. Most applicants do not know it exists. Studying it before you write your first draft is the clearest competitive edge available to you.

The Illinois Stewardship Alliance, which ran the first cycle, notes that strong applications also show economic viability – that you have a realistic plan for maintaining the equipment once the grant period ends.^[8] Equity without sustainability does not score well.

The 25% Match and the High-Need Waiver

Standard applicants must provide a 25% cost share. On a $75,000 individual project, that is $18,750 you need to document through cash, in-kind labor, equipment contributions, or letters of credit. For a $250,000 collaborative project, the match requirement reaches $62,500.

Acceptable match sources include cash, in-kind labor, equipment already owned, and letters of credit. The full qualifying criteria for the match waiver are defined in the NOFO. If there is any chance your project qualifies, document the infrastructure gap or community it serves before you build your budget.

Eligibility: The Headcount Rule and the Reapplication Restriction

Two rules cause the most confusion during the fit assessment. Getting them wrong in either direction costs you time – either you self-disqualify when you are actually eligible, or you spend 10 hours on a proposal you cannot legally submit.

The Concurrent Staff Rule. LFIG counts headcount at a single point in time. If your farm has 30 year-round employees and adds 15 seasonal workers during harvest, your concurrent count is 45. You are under the threshold and eligible. The rule is measuring who is on payroll simultaneously, not the total number of people you employ across the calendar year.

The Reapplication Restriction. Entities that received a grant under IDOA administration cannot apply in the immediately following cycle.^[3] The 2024 inaugural cycle was administered by the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, so those recipients were allowed to apply for FY26. But anyone awarded a grant under IDOA – starting with FY26 – will be barred from the very next cycle. Check your award letter to confirm which agency issued it.

How to Apply

Before you can access the full application form in Euna (the online submission portal formerly called AmpliFund), you need active registrations in three separate systems: SAM.gov, the GATA Grantee Portal, and Euna itself. IDOA recommends starting this process 2-4 weeks before you plan to apply.^[5] Many applicants discover too late that SAM.gov registration alone can take longer than that.

Documents You Will Need

Strategic Preparation for the Next Cycle

The FY26 application window is closed. The FY27 cycle has not been announced. The Illinois Stewardship Alliance is actively lobbying for continued state budget appropriation, but no NOFO has been issued as of May 2026.^[8] The applicants who tend to do well in a 7.7% acceptance-rate program are the ones who treat the off-season as preparation time, not waiting time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do seasonal workers count toward the 50-employee limit?

No. The limit applies to concurrent headcount – the number of people on payroll at the same time. If your harvest crew brings your total above 50 for six weeks but your year-round team stays well below that, you are not disqualified. The rule is about simultaneous employment, not total annual hires.

What defines a high-need project for the match waiver?

A high-need project fills a critical infrastructure gap or serves underserved farmers and communities. If your project qualifies, the 25% match requirement can be waived entirely. The full criteria are in the NOFO. If your project might qualify, build your documentation around the infrastructure gap or population served before you finalize the budget.

Where do I get the official application templates?

Individual and collaborative project templates, along with the budget template, timeline template, and the sample scoresheet, are available at illinoislfig.org/additional-resources. Download them now and begin drafting offline. Do not wait for a new NOFO to start using the templates – the format is consistent across cycles.

Can I reapply if I received funding in a previous cycle?

It depends on who administered your cycle. Recipients from the 2024 ISA-run inaugural cycle were eligible to apply for FY26. However, anyone who receives a grant under IDOA administration is barred from the immediately following cycle. FY26 awardees cannot apply for FY27. Check your award documentation to confirm the administering agency.^[3]

Is the program likely to continue for FY27?

The Illinois Stewardship Alliance is actively lobbying for continued state budget appropriation.^[8] No FY27 NOFO has been issued as of May 2026. The program has run two cycles (2024 and FY26), and the administrative infrastructure is established, but funding is subject to annual appropriation. Prepare accordingly.

Terms to Know

Value-added infrastructure

Physical equipment used to transform or package raw agricultural products into higher-value goods – for example, a grain mill, a cheese press, or a commercial cold-storage unit. The key test is whether the equipment processes or handles food after harvest, not whether it supports growing it.

Concurrent employees

The number of people employed by your entity at the same moment. LFIG uses this figure for the 50-employee threshold, not a cumulative annual count.

Euna (AmpliFund)

The official State of Illinois grants management portal used to submit LFIG applications. The platform was previously known as AmpliFund. References to either name point to the same system.

High-need waiver

An exemption from the standard 25% cost-share requirement available to applicants whose projects are designated as high-need – typically those filling a critical infrastructure gap or serving underserved farmers and communities.

Established status

A scoring category that awards additional points to entities that can demonstrate at least three years of Illinois operations, supported by two types of documentation per year.

Alternatives if You Are Ineligible

If the reapplication restriction or the headcount limit makes LFIG unavailable to you right now, the Illinois OE3 Small Business Capital and Infrastructure Grant also funds capital projects for smaller Illinois businesses with a different eligibility structure. You can also browse all current Illinois grants in the Grantaura database to find programs that fit your situation.

How Grantaura Supports Your LFIG Strategy

A 7.7% acceptance rate means nine out of ten applicants do not get funded. Most of the gap between a competitive proposal and a rejected one lives in the equity and community impact narrative – the highest-weighted scoring categories – and in the pre-registration steps that eliminate applicants before reviewers ever see the work.

Application Readiness Assessment. If you are uncertain whether your specific equipment qualifies as value-added infrastructure or whether your project could meet the high-need criteria for a match waiver, start with a Grant Assessment. You will get structured feedback on your project’s fit before you invest time in the narrative. The base assessment fee is non-refundable but can be deducted once toward the same grant’s Full Application when you select the optional checkbox at checkout.

Start Full Application Submission

Expert Narrative Review. The Advancing Equity and Community Impact categories carry the most weight and are also the hardest to write well without knowing what the sample scoresheet actually rewards. A 1-on-1 consultation with a grant expert gives you rubric-aligned feedback on your draft before you submit.

Compliance Dashboard. Track your SAM, GATA, and Euna registration status in one place and receive an alert as soon as IDOA announces the FY27 cycle. The dashboard also flags prior-awardee status so you do not prepare a submission for a cycle you are barred from entering.

Source Notes

1. Illinois Department of Agriculture – LFIG Program Page: confirms individual award ceiling of $75,000 and collaborative ceiling of $250,000. Back to claim
2. WGLT NPR Illinois (Dec 22, 2025): documents the 247 proposals submitted, 19 selected, and $23M+ collectively requested in the 2024 inaugural cycle, yielding a 7.7% acceptance rate. Back to claim
3. WGLT NPR Illinois (Dec 22, 2025): confirms the reapplication restriction barring prior IDOA-era awardees from the immediately following cycle. Back to claim
4. WGLT NPR Illinois (Dec 22, 2025): defines high-need criteria as filling a critical infrastructure gap or serving underserved farmers and communities and confirms the associated match waiver. Back to claim
5. IDOA Grant Submission Requirements: specifies the multi-system pre-registration process including the 2-4 week timeline recommendation and the SAM.gov technical issue workaround. Back to claim
6. FY26 NOFO (Euna/AmpliFund): specifies the June 30 expenditure deadline that creates the approximately 60-day deployment window after award notification. Back to claim
7. Illinois Administrative Code Part 340: identifies advancing equity and community impact as primary scoring dimensions for LFIG evaluation. Back to claim
8. AgriNews (March 21, 2026): sources ISA Executive Director Liz Moran Stelk on FY27 budget advocacy and confirms that strong applications demonstrate clear community impact, economic viability, and the ability to expand local food access. Back to claim

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