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Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP), USDA-AMS-TM-RFSP-G-21-009

  • Granting Agency: USDA
  • Appropriation Amount: $15,300,000
  • Grant Amount: Award Ceiling $1,000,000, Award Floor $100,000, match 10% or 25% dependent on award funding source
  • Announcement Date: May 5,2021
  • Closing Date: July 6, 2021

Fiscal Year 2021 Request for Applications (ROA)

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 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. Applicants will coordinate efforts within the partnership to set priorities, connect resources and services, and measure progress towards common goals.

Eligible Expenditures:
PLANNING AND DESIGN PROJECTS
Planning and Design projects support partnerships in the early stages of convening, envisioning, and planning processes for developing local or regional food systems, including for pandemic recovery. Through these processes, partnerships can determine the goals, outreach, objectives, and eligible activities to be carried out in the regional food system, including defining the region’s parameters (economic, geographic, etc.). Specifically, these projects support a food system’s capacity to develop and build community connections (public and private) that allow a region to engage in activities that drive the discovery and promotion of collaboration opportunities within the food system. Emphasis is placed on inclusively seeking public and private collaborators that connect and cultivate regional food economies and diverse non-Federal financial and technical resources.
IMPLEMENTATION AND EXPANSION PROJECTS
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 above for Planning and Design projects. Applicants should describe how the goals, objectives, and activities in their proposal build on and/or align with previous efforts, clearly engage entities with a shared commitment to the regional food system and maintain a diverse public-private network that enhances food system development.

Eligible Applicants:
Local governments, Non-Profits, Tribal Governments and Other entities (see ROA above)

Questions: IPPGrants@usda.gov, RFSP Website