Funding Overview

The Childcare Access and Nutrition Systems (CANS) Grant Program is funded through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA RD) and the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC). USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service provided the funding to SCRC to advance regional food and childcare systems in the distressed-identified rural counties of Dougherty and Upson, Georgia.

The SCRC geographic area stretches from the Tidewater part of eastern Virginia southward through the Carolinas along Interstate 95, west through Georgia and lower Alabama, and northwesterly to the Mississippi Delta. According to a recent Wallet Hub economic study, Georgia is the sixth most financially distressed state in the country and has the ninth most people with accounts in distress and the 10th highest average number of accounts in distress across the United States. Georgia’s Southeast Crescent region is mostly rural, offering natural beauty, a distinct cultural heritage and relative proximity to metropolitan Atlanta, which is the leading economic driver of the state. While most counties in Georgia are economically distressed, the changing demographics of the region, ranging from high-growth areas to those that are losing population, require special interventions and policies to help close the region’s development and economic growth gap.

This grant program will support rural Georgia communities’ economic development efforts and maintain and improve a healthy Georgia population by leveraging funding assistance from the USDA RD to key Administration priorities, such as advancing racial equity place-based growth, and opportunity by ensuring rural residents in the most distressed communities in Georgia have equitable access to RD programs and benefit from RD funded projects.

Timeline

 

SCRC CANS Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) (PDF)

This is an important update regarding the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the CANS Grant Program. On December 11, 2024, SCRC was notified that the total funding available for this program was reduced by $1.5 million, from $8 million to $6.5 million.

 

While no other aspects of the NOFA have changed, the reduction impacts the total amount and number of grant awards. The NOFA has been updated to reflect this modification. If you have any questions regarding this update, please contact the Director of Grants the office at 803-851-3356 or email [email protected].

About the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC)
The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC) is a federal-state partnership authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill to promote and encourage economic development in areas of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and all of Florida. SCRC invests in projects that support basic infrastructure, business development, natural resources, and workforce/labor development. SCRC’s mission is to help create jobs, build communities, and improve the lives of those who reside in the 428 counties of the seven-state region.