Ok, here I go
I am in Riverside California
I currently have a 6x8 greenhouse set up as an aquaponics system.... everything is run from one 60 gal fishtank which currently has some koi and goldies in it. I had Pumpkinseed but since I did not have a heater in the tank (and I am guessing here) that they didnt like the temperature fluctuations in the greenhouse last fall and I lost them. I am playing with various systems in the greenhouse. I have a riverbed system that I designed based on several of the systems I have seen online. I am growing strawberries and lettuces in the unit so to maximize space utilization I made it 3 levels and it holds 100 plants. I have 4 flood and drain tubs that are made from 7 gallon cement mixing tubs, and then decided to play with my own twist on a dutch bucket design and they are from 5 tubs I bought at the 99 cents store. Then I have 3 10 gal totes with a kitty litter pan on top of each that I use for seed starters, they have a Procambius Sp. self cloning crayfish in each of those with the hopes that they really do produce as prolificly as reported, should make good fish food for the 4 bass I have in a barrel system that is a modification on the typical barrelponics design, I cut out the flood tub and just run my pump from the fishtank to the grow beds. I have a 300 gal tub pond for fish in the aviary and growbeds under flourescent lighting for more lettuce and seed starting, the fish tub is down to 60-100 gal right now so that I can keep it warm enough for the Tilapia to survive, I have 2 18 gal rubermaid totes with heaters and they have breeding groups of Tilapia in them that just gave me some fry... yippee! They are T. Mossambique, I have some hybrid tilapia on order.
My focus is on the hydroponics part of the Aquaponics in that for me the veggies are more important right now than the fish as I have goldies and koi in some systems right now just to have fish.... I dont as of yet have enough heaters to do much else till I can find a supplier of Catfish fingerlings for a price I can afford.

I mentioned an idea I am working on in another part of the forum, that idea is this.

I have a small aquaponics group on meetup.com at http://www.meetup.com/sustainable-aquaponics/ We are a new group and have I think so far 18 members, some out of the state and one in another country... anyway
Part 1. obtain grant funding is create a 501c3 non profit group
Part 2 provide a portion of what they produce to local food banks, homeless shelters and such and sell some excess in the local farmers market.
Part 3. use funding from the grant and the sale of produce to build other aquaponics systems in the local community in low income family homes.
The idea would be that we set up and maintain the system as far as planting, monitoring fish health and harvesting...
The family will receive a portion of what is produced for their participation in the program, they would be responsible for feeding the fish and paying for the electricity usage of the low wattage pumps.
A portion of what is produced would then go to the local foodbanks
The rest would then go for sale at the local farmers market to provide funding for the next system to be placed into another low income family's home.

Before I can make the proposal, I believe I have to contact the local food banks and homeless shelters to verify that they can receive such donations. Contact the health department to determine what permits we will need and what would be expected in the inspections. Obtain the necessary business license and sellers permits. I still need to find a supplier of catfish fingerlings. (I believe catfish would be easier to raise in the systems due to the poor cold tolerance of Tilapia) I am raising Tilapia myself and will be providing Tilapia fry or fingerlings for these systems. Then comes the fun part.... filing for the non profit status and doing the economic projection reports to obtain the 501c3. Then writing for the grants.

Does anyone know of any such programs that are already running in the US???
Does anyone have any other suggestions of what I need to do that I may have forgotten?
Is anyone good at grant writing that can give me some pointers or perhaps help?
I have a book on how to create a nonprofit corp but would be open to suggestions there also...