USDA Regional Food Business Centers Program in the US

Deadline: 22-Nov-22

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering grants through its Regional Food Business Centers Program to support a more resilient, diverse, and competitive food system.

Small and mid-sized food and farm businesses often lack the tools and resources to access customers and develop robust local and regional markets. The Regional Food Centers will offer coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building to small and mid-sized food and farm businesses (producers, processors, aggregators, and distributors) to create new markets and expand current linkages throughout the supply chain.

Purpose

Regional Food Centers will focus on underserved producers, processors, aggregators, distributors, and other business within the supply chain. The Regional Food Centers will offer comprehensive, collaborative, and regionally-driven community and economic development that improves opportunities and competitiveness of food and farm businesses, including value-added activities that generate additional business revenue.

The Regional Food Centers will create new market opportunities for producers and businesses within regions tailored to their business development and investment needs. Resilient supply chains are built upon strong relationships between individuals, communities, regions, sectors, and institutions and this regional approach relies on the cultivation of strategic alliances within the supply chain, which are intentionally structured to produce both economic success and equitable social benefits.

Goals

• Expand and strengthen regional food systems networks and partnerships in response to hardships and vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic,
• Increase food and farm business and financial acumen, particularly among small and mid-size operators,
• Create more, new, and better markets, and increase market awareness and access for small and mid-size producers and processors,
• Increase the number of local producers that distributors, retailers and foodservice buyers source from, either directly or through intermediaries.
• Increase the number of new food and farm businesses and improve the viability of existing businesses, and
• Increase the revenue of food and farm businesses served.

Funding Information

• The anticipated amount available to fund applications for Regional Food Centers is at least $360,000,000.
•  Minimum Award: $15M
• Maximum Award: $50M
• Duration: 60 (Months)

Program Description

The Regional Food Centers will be operated by partnerships of eligible entities and will have three main interconnected responsibilities, along with administration, monitoring, and evaluation, which may be accomplished through sub-agreements with organizations or additional partners in the region:

• Coordination – The Regional Food Centers will act as coordinating entities across their geographic areas with USDA, other federal, state, and tribal agencies with relevant resources, regional commissions, stakeholders, and the other Regional Food Centers. They will engage with stakeholders and partners to develop and implement strategic and funding plans for serving the region through technical assistance and capacity building. They will conduct outreach to underserved communities and businesses.
• Technical Assistance – The Regional Food Centers will provide direct business technical assistance to small- and mid-sized food and farm businesses (producers, processors, aggregators, distributors, and other businesses within the food supply chain) and food value and supply chain coordination. Each Regional Food Center will identify priority areas for technical assistance (e.g., aggregation/distribution, specialty crop processing for institutions) for the region it plans to serve.
• Capacity Building – The Regional Food Centers will provide financial assistance through business builder subawards of up to $100,000 each to support projects focused on meeting regional needs and increasing capacity among businesses working towards expansion.

Eligibility Criteria

• All applications to lead a Regional Food Center (“the applicant”) must come from an eligible representing a partnership and must be physically based in the region (excluding the tribal center, which has nationwide reach). A partnership is an agreement among three or more eligible entities representing at least two of the eligible entity types. To demonstrate partnerships, the applicant must submit letters of commitment outlining the partnership. Within 45 days of award, the partnership will provide USDA with a Memorandum of Understanding between the partners detailing how each partner will contribute to the Regional Food Center.
• The applicant must be the organization in the partnership that is responsible for receiving and managing the award.
• Partnerships that include organizations that serve or represent Limited Resource Entities are strongly encouraged to apply, including organizations that may not have capacity to apply as lead applicants. Serving or representing a Limited Resource Entity means that the organization provides technical assistance services to, and meaningfully engages, historically underserved farmers, ranchers, and businesses in addressing their needs.
• All applicants and the eligible entities that make up the partnership must have a physical presence within, and have a history of serving, the region for which they are applying to serve as a Regional Food Center, and must be domestic entities owned and operated within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or Indian tribal lands in the geographic regions of the United States.
• Applications should include engagement from multiple sectors such as local, state, tribal, or regional governments, tribal-serving organizations, food policy councils, producers and/or producer organizations, universities, urban and rural food system stakeholders, philanthropy, and entities across the food value chain and supply chain, such as distributors, processors, food hubs, retailers, and underserved communities and agricultural businesses. In cases where more than one application proposes to serve the same, similar, or overlapping geographic regions, USDA may invite finalists to partner with other eligible entities in their region and resubmit an expanded partnership proposal for reconsideration.
• Eligible entities include:
  • Producer: Network or Association Producer group- or member-owned organizations that provide, offer, or sell agricultural products or services through a common distribution system for the mutual member benefit of the owners, as well as organizations that assist, represent, or serve producers or producer networks.
  • Food Council: Food policy council or food and farm system network that represents multiple organizations involved in the production, processing, and consumption of food, and local, tribal, and State governments.
  • Tribal Governments
  • State Agencies or Regional Authorities: State government agencies such as departments of agriculture or natural resources, planning commissions, councils of governments, regional economic development organizations/districts, and similar organizations.
  • Institutions of Higher Education: Educational institutions that meet the requirements specified at 20 U.S.C. § 1001.
  • Nonprofit Corporations: Any organization or institution, including nonprofits with State or IRS or Tribal 501 (c) status and accredited institutions of higher education, where no part of the organization’s or institution’s net earnings inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
  • Economic Development Corporations: Organizations whose missions are to improve, maintain, develop, and/or market or promote a specific geographic area.

For more information, visit USDA.

For more information, visit https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/local-regional/rfbcp/apply