RALEIGH — Local nonprofits can now apply for grants to help with food distribution assistance after the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $10 million in funds to the Golden LEAF Foundation, which will supply the grants.

The grants will be used to assist nonprofits in becoming either eligible partners of the North Carolina food bank or to enhance the capacity of current partners of the food bank. They could also be used to help organizations establish or expand a school-based weekend food assistance program. Up to $250,000 is available per project.

“There are seven food banks in North Carolina that operate through a network called ‘Feeding the Carolinas’ and we will rely on them to help assess areas of food insecurity or where there are opportunities to enhance their partner agency coverage,” said Kacey Ginsberg, vice president and chief of staff of the foundation.

“As part of the application review process, we’ll be assessing if there are areas where we will make more awards because there is a greater need,” Ginsberg said.

Submissions of pre-applications opened on Jan. 23 and will end on Feb. 7. Guidelines regarding the pre-application process can be found at goldenleaf.org.

For the school-based weekend food assistance program, nonprofits will have to provide another application and then a decision to award or decline the grant will be made by the foundation’s board.

For grants concerning potential or existing partnerships with the North Carolina food bank, the next step after the pre-application phase will be a project assessment, another application will have to be submitted and then the foundation’s board will make a decision.

The anticipated announcement date on which nonprofits will receive grants is Aug. 3, according to the foundation’s website.