Call for projects from organizations in the biofood sector

As part of its economic recovery plan, the city is launching a call for projects to generate resilience in the biofood sector, in collaboration with the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ). 

The projects must begin no later than April 30, 2021 and end no later than December 31, 2022.

The following types of organizations are eligible:

• Assistance organizations
• Social economy businesses, including solidarity cooperatives that have been declared not for profit by authorities
• Association or group of organizations, private companies or collective enterprises
• Research centres
• Community organizations that have created a social economy project 

Conditions:

• Be legally constituted as a non-profit organization in Québec or Canada 
• Be established within the Montréal agglomeration 
• Have sound financial and governance practices

Projects must be carried out internally. To be eligible, they must fall into one of the following categories: 

1-Local and sustainable supply chain

Projects must bring consumers and producers closer together; reduce the number of intermediaries; strengthen, diversify, solidify or improve supply chains; and generate at least one of the following benefits:

• Address distribution and logistics issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic 
• Facilitate market access for the smallest businesses  
• Diversify markets
• Reduce transportation and storage time and costs 
• Reduce the ecological footprint
• Reduce food waste
• Encourage the circular economy

2-Urban and periurban farm production

Projects must be implemented in the Montréal agglomeration and generate at least one of the following benefits:

• Optimize farm production
• Diversify production or growing methods
• Farm new spaces
• Develop farms within the Grand parc de l’Ouest

3-Promoting local products and businesses

Projects must generate at least one of the following benefits:

• Showcase restaurant owners, artisans, producers, or food/food processing businesses 
• Educate consumers about buying and eating locally
• Support the promotion and development of fine cuisine in Montréal 
• Strengthen the restaurant or fast food sector 
• Promote local food products in Montréal

A city/MAPAQ jury will evaluate applications against the following criteria: 

• Organizations that are recognized for their capacity and expertise
• Quality projects with partner-based approaches and realistic budgets
• Projects that address structural issues and are part of the ecological transition 
• A project that produces large-scale benefits such as innovation, integrating the circular economy, social economy entrepreneurship methods and improving access to fresh and local products

Selection stages

The project selection process will have two stages: 

1. Qualification stage: Evaluating projects to determine whether they are eligible - December 2020 

All organizations whose projects are deemed eligible qualify for personalized entrepreneurial assistance with a view to refining their project. 

2. Final selection stage: Once their personalized assistance is complete, organizations that are carrying out qualified projects will be invited to submit a full application, which will be evaluated by a jury in February 2021.

For all the details about the call for projects, please see the PDF (in French)

• Appel à projets pour les acteurs du secteur bioalimentaire - Question et réponses (in French) [PDF 252 KB]