Grants for Food and Beverage Guidebook
How much Food & Beverage grant funding can I get?

Summary

• Funding amounts vary significantly from program to program, but most grants cover a percentage of eligible costs up to a predetermined maximum.
• Some grants can be combined, while others cannot. These “stacking rules” will be outlined in the applicant guide. Make sure you read them! 
• Talk to funders about their program priorities whenever you get the chance. This can be a good way to learn about not-so-obvious X factors that affect funding decisions.

It’s truly overwhelming how much grant funding there is available. We often see Food & Beverage businesses getting caught up trying to tell how much free money they can get. With thousands of programs, different types of grants, and millions of dollars in available funding, it can be almost impossible to calculate this on your own. Let’s break down some of the most popular types of grants and see how much funding can be secured for one application. 

• Hiring grants: Hiring grants cover the cost of employee wages. In most cases, they will cover somewhere between 20-80% of a new employee’s wages. Granting programs cover more money for new employees that come from underrepresented groups such as newcomers to Canada, people with disabilities, minorities, and women. Hiring grants often have a cap of $5,000 per employee and $7,000 for underrepresented employees. Programs for long-term designated Food & Beverage work placements can cover between $10,000 and $20,000+. 
• Training grants: Training grants cover the cost of an associated skills-based or educational program for present staff. In most cases, these grants are meant to cover 100% of the costs and have an annual limit of $10,000-$15,000 that applies to each employer.
• Market Expansion and R&D grants: These grants are somewhat different in structure and usually operate on a “claim-back” process. We see various Food & Beverage specific market expansion or R&D grants cover between 50% and 75% of the costs for a proposed project. Dollar amounts for R&D grants can be in the millions, but you’ll need to secure matching funds from non-government sources to qualify. 

Getting the most out of grants can be difficult–there’s a lot of strategy and technique involved. In general, one has to have a certain level of expertise in applicant criteria and eligibility requirements for many of the programs out there. Furthermore, grants can be combined or “stacked,” meaning that you might be able to secure funding for multiple projects at the same time, from the same or different programs. To learn more about stacking grants, check out our article on The Ins and Outs of Stacking Grants. 

Securing funding isn’t just about evaluating an application against a program’s criteria. Programs will prioritize certain “X-factors” and have their own internal mandates/quotas that control their decision-making. The best way to learn as much as you can is to reach out to the program you want to apply for and ask questions.

Curious about how much grant funding your small business qualifies for? Head on over to our Grant Calculator to find out!