§ 7511a. Emergency food program infrastructure grants

• (a) In this section, the term “eligible entity” means an emergency feeding organization.
• (b)
  • (1) The Secretary shall use funds made available under subsection (d) to make grants to eligible entities to pay the costs of an activity described in subsection (c).
  • (2) The Secretary shall use not less than 50 percent of the funds described in paragraph (1) for a fiscal year to make grants to eligible entities that serve predominantly rural communities for the purposes of—
    • (A) expanding the capacity and infrastructure of food banks, State-wide food bank associations, and food bank collaboratives that operate in rural areas; and
    • (B) improving the capacity of the food banks to procure, receive, store, distribute, track, and deliver time-sensitive or perishable food products.
• (c) An eligible entity shall use a grant received under this section for any fiscal year to carry out activities of the eligible entity, including—
  • (1) the development and maintenance of a computerized system for the tracking of time-sensitive food products;
  • (2) capital, infrastructure, and operating costs associated with the collection, storage, distribution, and transportation of time-sensitive and perishable food products;
  • (3) improving the security and diversity of the emergency food distribution and recovery systems of the United States through the support of small or mid-size farms and ranches, fisheries, and aquaculture, and donations from local food producers and manufacturers to persons in need;
  • (4) providing recovered foods to food banks and similar nonprofit emergency food providers to reduce hunger in the United States;
  • (5) improving the identification of—
    • (A) potential providers of donated foods;
    • (B) potential nonprofit emergency food providers; and
    • (C) persons in need of emergency food assistance in rural areas; and
  • (6) constructing, expanding, or repairing a facility or equipment to support hunger relief agencies in the community.
• (d) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2023.