The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) is pleased to announce a competitive solicitation process to award projects under the USDA Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Grant Program (RFSI).
Donor Name: Oregon Department of Agriculture
State: Oregon
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/29/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The purpose of this program is to build resilience in the middle of the supply chain and strengthen local and regional food systems by creating new revenue streams for the state’s producers.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) will to offer two competitive grant tracks, one for equipment and one for infrastructure. Each track will require a separate application and eligible entities will only be allowed to receive funding from one track as required by the USDA program rules; however, applicants may apply to both tracks. We will offer technical grant assistance throughout the application process to help those who request it. ODA will not provide writing assistance to applicants but will connect them to external resources such as the USDA Regional Food Business Center for support. ODA encourages applicants and applications that are from or benefit, small farm and food businesses, veterans, women owned companies, and other historically underserved groups.
Funding Information
A range of $100,000 – $2,000,000 per project is required. Grant funds will be available for projects lasting 2 years and cannot be expended before a project initiation date is given by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Eligible Products
Funds will support expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, including specialty crops, dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other food products, excluding meat, poultry, and wild-caught seafood. This program is intended to provide similar support provided in other USDA funding for meat and poultry processing, but for the non-meat and poultry sectors.
Eligibility Criteria
Entities eligible for grants are:
- Agricultural producers or processors, or groups of agricultural producers and processors
- Nonprofit organizations operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products
- Local government entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products
- Tribal governments operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products.
- Institutions such as schools, universities, or hospitals bringing producers together to establish cooperative or shared infrastructure or invest in equipment that will benefit multiple producers middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural product.
All applicant businesses and organizations must be domestically owned, and applicants’ facilities must be physically located within the 50 States of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
For more information, visit ODA.
