The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), is requesting applications for its 2026 Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) Grant Program.
Donor Name: Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/05/2026
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
RFSP purpose is to support partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local and regional food systems. RFSP is part of the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) umbrella program. AMS welcomes applications that meet LAMP goals (see section 3.1) to support the development, coordination, and expansion of direct producer-to-consumer marketing, local and regional food markets and enterprises, and value-added agricultural products.
Funding Information
Anticipated Available Funding: Approximately $4.71 million.
- Planning & Design
- Minimum Award: $100,000
- Maximum Award: $250,000
- Implementation & Expansion
- Minimum Award: $250,000
- Maximum Award: $1,000,000
Grant Period
- Planning & Design: 24 Month
- Implementation & Expansion: 36 Month
Eligibility Criteria
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.
- Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Network or Association
- Formal groups of farms that work collectively to offer consumers regular (usually weekly) deliveries of locally grown farm products during one or more harvest season(s), often on a subscription or membership basis.
- Economic Development Corporation
- Organization whose mission is to improve, maintain, develop, and/or market or promote a specific geographic area.
- Farmer or Rancher Cooperative
- A business or service organization (1) that is owned and democratically controlled by the people who use its services and (2) whose benefits (services received and earnings allocations) are distributed to the userowners based on how much they use the cooperative.
- Food Council
- A 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, or State governments, that addresses food and farm-related issues and needs within a city, county, State, Tribal region, multicounty region, or other food system network.
- Local Government
- Any unit of government within a State, including a county; borough; municipality; city; town; township; parish; local public authority, including any public housing agency under the United States Housing Act of 1937, or public transportation agency; special district; school district; intrastate district; council of governments, whether or not incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under State law; and any other agency or instrumentality of amulti-state, regional, intra-state, or local government.
- Majority-Controlled ProducerBased Business Venture
- A business venture in which more than 50 percent of ownership and control is held by one or more producers or one or more entities that are wholly owned and controlled by one or more producers. Entities described here include legal partnerships, limited liability corporations, limited liability partnerships, and corporations.
- Nonprofit Corporation
- Any organization or institution, including nonprofit with State or IRS 501 (c) status and accredited institutions of higher education, where no part of the organization or institution’s net earnings inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
- Producer
- An owner-operator or tenant that produces an agricultural crop or handles livestock and is entitled to a share of the farm income.
- Producer Network or Association
- A producer group- or member-owned organizations or businesses that provide, offer, orsell agricultural products orservices through a common distribution system for the mutual member benefit of the owners, including organizations that assist, represent, or serve producers or producer networks.
- Public Benefit Corporation
- A corporation organized to construct or operate a public improvement, where the profits inure to the benefit of one or more State or to the people therein.
- Regional Farmers Market Authority
- An entity that establishes and enforces State, regional, or county policies and jurisdiction over State, regional, or county farmers markets. State agencies are eligible if their State’s regulatory statutes identify the specific State agency as a regional farmers market authority.
- Tribal Government
- A governing body or governmental agency of an Indian Tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community (including any native village as defined in Section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 85 Stat. 688 (43 U.S.C. § 1602)) certified by the Secretary of the Interior as eligible for the special programs and services provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
