Yes, under the Procurement Standards section of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR Part 200.317 to 200.326), grant recipients must have documented policies and processes for purchasing goods and services with federal (SCBG) funding. Additionally, your organization must follow the same policies and procedures for procurements from non-federal sources.

To illustrate an example, the State of Minnesota’s contracting and bidding requirements for non-governmental organization grantees are described in clause 4.3 of the Competitive Grant Agreement for Non-Governmental Organizations (Microsoft Word, updated June 2020). These should conform to most Federal law and standards for most non-University or government grantee organizations for typical SCBG grant project procurement purchases.

The State of Minnesota does not require financial documentation to be submitted by a for-profit business as part of the application process. We may, however, request a recent balance sheet to perform a financial review before making final award recommendations to the Commissioner.

All applicants must obtain a DUNS number and be registered with the System for Award Management (keep the e-mail confirmation) as described in the RFP.

Timeline, review, and scoring

The funding priorities are of equal importance. Using the evaluation criteria listed in the RFP, points will be awarded to projects according to how well the application addresses at least one of the funding priorities.

Are the funding priorities listed in the RFP of equal importance or does the order in which they appear indicate their relative priority?

The funding priorities are of equal importance. Using the evaluation criteria listed in the RFP, points will be awarded to projects according to how well the application addresses at least one of the funding priorities.

No

The Evaluation Criteria section of the RFP includes scoring for industry support by external stakeholders. There is merit in both kinds of letters of support. Ultimately, a letter that tells a more compelling story about the impact/value of your project will make a bigger difference in the scoring process, no matter the author.

Do letters of support from large groups of growers carry more weight than letters from individual growers?

The Evaluation Criteria section of the RFP includes scoring for industry support by external stakeholders. There is merit in both kinds of letters of support. Ultimately, a letter that tells a more compelling story about the impact/value of your project will make a bigger difference in the scoring process, no matter the author.

No

There are no exclusions on who may be the beneficiary of a specialty crop block grant as long as the grant fulfills the program’s purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of specialty crops in Minnesota. However, projects that can demonstrate a benefit to beginning farmers (defined as an individual or entity that has not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 years and substantially participates in the operation) can receive up to two additional points during the scoring process. Projects that benefit Emerging Farmers, including Native American producers, immigrant farmers, farmers of color, and women, can receive up to five additional points.

Is there a specific audience that should be served by an SCBG grant, or is it advantageous from a scoring perspective to target a particular audience?

There are no exclusions on who may be the beneficiary of a specialty crop block grant as long as the grant fulfills the program’s purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of specialty crops in Minnesota. However, projects that can demonstrate a benefit to beginning farmers (defined as an individual or entity that has not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 years and substantially participates in the operation) can receive up to two additional points during the scoring process. Projects that benefit Emerging Farmers, including Native American producers, immigrant farmers, farmers of color, and women, can receive up to five additional points.

No

The funding priorities are of equal importance. Using the evaluation criteria listed in the RFP, points will be awarded to projects according to how well the application addresses at least one of the funding priorities.

There are no exclusions on who may be the beneficiary of an SCBGP project as long as the project fulfills the program’s purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of specialty crops in Minnesota. However, projects that can demonstrate a benefit to beginning farmers (defined as an individual or entity that has not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 years and substantially participates in the operation) can receive up to five additional points during the scoring process. We encourage you to review the Evaluation Profile to understand how applications will be scored.

Eligible costs