The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) is currently accepting grant applications for the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program (RFSI).
Donor Name: Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA)
State: Maryland
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/29/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
Grant 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 and poultry.
Priorities
The Maryland Department of Agriculture conducted statewide outreach through a stakeholder listening session and a survey to establish funding priorities for the RFSI program in Maryland. RFSI funding priorities for Maryland, based on collected data and feedback, will include projects that:
- Expanded capacity for aggregation, distribution, and processing;
- Construction of new facilities;
- Modernize manufacturing, tracking, and storage through information technologies;
- Cold storage equipment to increase supply chain resilience; and
- Enhancing operations through employee training.
Infrastructure Grants will be used for the purpose of expanding middle-of-the-food- supplychain capacity for locally and regionally produced foods and offer more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers, including those who may not have access to value-added opportunities or processing to meet market demand for premium or value-added products, such as underserved producers.
Funding Information
- Infrastructure Grants: $3,000,000 Minimum award of $100,000 and a maximum award of $3,000,000.
- Simplified Equipment-Only Grants Minimum award of $10,000 and a maximum award of $100,000.
RFSI Funding Period
- Equipment-Only Funding Period: August 1, 2024-August 1, 2025
- Infrastructure Funding Period Ends: August 1, 2024-May 1, 2027
Eligible Projects
Potential grant activities may include:
- Expanding capacity for processing, aggregation and distribution of agricultural products to create more and better markets for producers;
- Modernizing manufacturing, tracking, storage, and information technology systems;
- Enhancing worker safety through adoption of new technologies or investment in equipment or facility improvements;
- Improving the capacity of entities to comply with federal, state, and local food safety requirements;
- Improving operations through training opportunities;
- Increasing packaging and labeling capacities that meet compliance requirements under applicable laws (e.g. sealing, bagging, boxing, labeling, conveying, and product moving equipment); and
- Modernizing or expanding an existing facility (including expansion and modifications to existing buildings and/or construction of new buildings at existing facilities).
Eligibility Criteria
Entities eligible for Infrastructure Grants will be:
- 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.
- For-profit entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, or distribution of targeted agricultural products, whose activities are primarily focused for the benefit of local and regional producers, and that meet the eligibility requirements of the SBA small business size standards are eligible.
- For-profit entities must meet the eligibility requirements of the SBA small business size standards matched to industries described in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
- 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 products
For more information, visit MDA.
