The Rural Business-Cooperative Service announces that Rural Development (RD or the Agency) is accepting proposals to evaluate the impact of RD’s grants and loan programs on regional food supply chains.
Donor Name: Rural Business-Cooperative Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/08/2023
Size of the Grant: Up to $750,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
The United States (U.S.) food and agricultural system is highly concentrated, both geographically and commercially. Most food consumed by Americans is grown on large farms and aggregated, processed, and distributed by a few multinational companies. While the U.S. food system is a highly efficient one, COVID-19 exposed the risks of a centralized system. The crippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chains across the U.S. and the world exposed the risks a highly concentrated food system that has worked to the detriment of the small- and medium-sized farmers who serve local and regional food systems.
While USDA has long invested in local and regional food systems, the pandemic made clear that more needs to be done to withstand future pandemics, cyberattacks, and other threats that have hobbled portions of the food supply system in recent years. In 2022, USDA launched the Food Transformation Initiative (FTI) to create a more distributed and fair food system with fewer steps from farm to fork, provide options for small- and medium-sized producers to create value-added products to sell locally and regionally, and support new economic opportunities and job creation in rural communities.
This evaluation will provide USDA an evidence-based understanding of how and to what extent these programs have achieved their goal of a more resilient food supply chain and created market opportunities for small- and mid-size farmers and independent agricultural businesses up and down the food supply chain. The body of evidence and findings produced through this evaluation will guide the department as it takes these programs into the future
Funding Information
The amount available for this evaluation in 2023 is up to $750,000.
Performance Period
- The maximum Period of Performance is 3 years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must meet the eligibility requirements stated here and in by the application deadline. Applications that fail to meet any of these requirements by the application deadline will be deemed ineligible, will not be evaluated further, and will not receive a federal award. Applicants may not submit more than one application.
- Organizations eligible to apply include public and private sector institutions with five or more years of experience conducting research on U.S. food systems or evaluations of federally funded programs in support of strengthening food supply chains. Individuals are not eligible to apply. Applicants must demonstrate they have the capacity and resources to carry out the evaluation and complete all tasks and deliverables within the Period of Performance. Applicants must specifically demonstrate past experience and current capacity to design and implement formative, performance, and impact evaluations.
- Entities are not eligible if they have been debarred or suspended or otherwise excluded from, or ineligible for, participation in federal assistance programs applicant will be considered ineligible for a cooperative agreement due to an outstanding judgment obtained by the U.S. in a federal court (other than U.S. Tax Court) or if the applicant is delinquent on the payment of federal income taxes or federal debt.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
