Deadline: 2-May-23
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), requests applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2023 Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant program to support partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local and regional food systems.
The RFSP focuses on building and strengthening local or regional food economy viability and resilience, and this includes pandemic response and recovery. Applicants will work with their partners to catalyze the development of local or regional food systems.
Purpose
- The RFSP supports partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems. The RFSP focuses on building and strengthening the viability and resilience of the local or regional food economy.
- Applicants will work with their partners to promote the development of local or regional food systems.
- Applicants will coordinate efforts within the partnership to set priorities, connect resources and services, and measure progress towards common goals.
- Partnerships are authorized to:
- Determine the size and scope of the local or regional food system in which the project’s goals, outreach objectives, and eligible activities are to be carried out.
- Coordinate with AMS to receive technical assistance; and
- Conduct outreach and education for potential participation in the partnership agreement and eligible activities.
Priority Areas
- AMS will prioritize applications that:
- Leverage significant non-Federal financial and technical resources and coordinate with other local, State, Tribal, or national efforts. Any match and beyond the match requirement may lend support to the application.
- Cover an area that includes distressed low-income rural or urban communities with areas of persistent poverty that provide significant opportunities for high impact investment; or
- Have multiple entities and partners, although such partners need not be based in the partnership’s defined region.
Funding Information
- AMS anticipates approximately $56.5 million will be available in FY2023 for RFSP projects, including funds come from the American Rescue Plan. Any funds not awarded under this RFA will be made available through the RFA published in the next competitive award cycle.
- Award Ceiling: $1,000,000
- Award Floor: $100,000.
Project Types
- RFSP offers Planning and Design, Implementation and Expansion, and Farm to Institution project types:
- Planning and Design: Planning and Design projects support partnerships in the early stages of convening, envisioning, goal setting and identifying strategies for developing local or regional food systems. Specifically, these projects support food system’s efforts to build community connections (public and private) that allow a region to drive the discovery and promotion of collaboration opportunities within the food system.
- Implementation and Expansion: Implementation and Expansion projects support partnerships building on prior or ongoing efforts within a local or regional food system. Partnerships funded in this track will have already completed most or all the activities discussed for Planning and Design projects.
- Farm to Institution project: Farm to Institution projects supports public-private partnerships that plan and facilitate supply chains and develop relationships between local and regional producers, processors, intermediaries, and institutional markets or institutional food services operations, such as dining facilities within pre-K through grade 12 schools, college, university, hospital, local government, tribal, and state agency cafeterias or meal programs.
Eligibility Criteria
- Only partnerships are eligible to apply to RFSP. A partnership is an agreement between one or more eligible entities and one or more eligible partners. The agreement may be in the form of any official documentation such as a contract or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
- An application may be submitted either by an eligible entity or an eligible partner on behalf of the partnership. The partnership must specify in its application which organization(s) in the partnership are responsible for receiving and managing the award.
- Partnerships that include Limited Resource Entities are strongly encouraged to apply.
- All applicants must be domestic entities owned, operated, and located within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or Tribal Governments.
Ineligible
- Projects are not eligible for funding if the proposed activities:
- Are for agricultural production-related expenses, including crop production and the purchase of farm equipment, tools, materials, supplies, and other related costs.
- Are to purchase land, or for construction of a building or structure.
- Are to purchase general purpose equipment. – general purpose equipment can be leased, but not leased-to-own or purchased.
- Benefit only one agricultural producer or individual.
- Depend upon the completion of another project or the receipt of another grant.
- Duplicate activities in a project that has received a Federal award from another Federal award program.
- Provide capital for revolving loan funds or seed equity funds.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.