The U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is accepting FY2026 applications for the Cold Chain Grants for Emergency Food Assistance (CCG), a one-time competitive grant program designed to strengthen cold-storage and distribution capacity serving food banks, food pantries, and other emergency food assistance operations.
Deadline: October 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov.
Funding: Approximately $7.5 million is available. AMS anticipates 1 to 4 prime awards. Prime applicants must request between $2 million and $7.5 million for an approximately two-year project period.
Eligibility: Eligible prime applicants are domestic nonprofit corporations, including qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations. Applicants must demonstrate the capacity to implement and manage a competitive subaward program, including solicitation, application review, award, oversight, and reporting, over a broad relevant geographic area.
Program structure: The selected prime recipient or recipients will administer competitive subawards for cold-chain equipment investments that help emergency food assistance organizations store, package, and distribute fresh and minimally processed foods. Prime applicants have no cost-share requirement. Each subaward project requires a 10% cash cost share from the subrecipient.
Application package: Mandatory materials include the SF-424, SF-424A, and the required CCG Project Narrative template. A Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement must be included when applicable. Applicants must have the required federal registrations and submit through Grants.gov.
This opportunity is particularly relevant to established nonprofit food banks and other organizations that already operate broad emergency-food networks and can document competitive subaward administration, grants management, oversight, and reporting capacity.