The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), requests applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant program.
Donor Name: Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/14/2024
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
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 the viability and resilience of the local or regional food economy.
The primary goals of LAMP are to:
- Connect and cultivate regional food economies through public-private partnerships.
- Support the development of business plans, feasibility studies, and strategies for value-added agricultural production and local and regional food system infrastructure.
- Strengthen capacity and regional food system development through community collaboration and expansion of mid-tier value chains.
- Improve income and economic opportunities for producers and food businesses through job creation; and
- Simplify the application processes and the reporting processes for the Program.
Project Types
- Planning and Design
- Planning and Design projects support partnerships in the early stages of convening, envisioning, goal setting, and identifying strategies for developing local or regional food systems.
- Implementation and Expansion
- 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 for Planning and Design projects.
Funding Information
Approximately $5 million will be available to fund applications under this solicitation, minus administrative expenses.
- Planning & Design
- Maximum Award: $250,000
- Minimum Award: $100,000
- Project Period: 24 months
- Implementation and Expansion
- Maximum Award: $1,000,000
- Minimum Award: $250,000
- Project Period: 36 months
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Entities Include:
- Producer
- An owner-operator or tenant that produces a crop or handles livestock and is entitled to a share of the farm income.
- 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 user-owners based on how much they use the cooperative.
- Producer Network or Association
- Producer group- or member-owned organizations or businesses that provide, offer, or sell agricultural products or services through a common distribution system for the mutual member benefit of the owners, as well as organizations or other businesses that assist, represent, or serve producers or producer networks.
- Majority-Controlled ProducerBased Business Venture
- A venture with greater than 50 percent of the ownership and control 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.
- Food Council
- 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, and State 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. This includes organizations or other businesses that assist, serve, or represent CSAs or CSA networks.
- Local Governments
- 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 a multi-, regional, intra-state, or local government.
- Nonprofit Corporations
- Any organization or institution, including nonprofits with State or IRS 501 (c) status and accredited institutions of higher education, where no part of the organization’s or institution’s net earnings inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
- Public Benefit Corporations
- Corporations organized to construct or operate a public improvement, the profits from which inure to the benefit of one or more State or to the people therein.
- Economic Development Corporations
- Organizations whose missions are to improve, maintain, develop, and/or market or promote a specific geographic area.
- Regional Farmers Market Authorities
- Entities that establish and enforce 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 Governments
- Governing bodies or governmental agencies of any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community certified by the Secretary of the Interior as eligible for the special programs and services provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Eligible partners include:
- State Agencies or Regional Authorities
- Planning commissions, councils of governments, regional economic development organizations/districts, and similar organizations.
- Philanthropic Corporations
- An independent, corporate, or private foundation established to support charitable activities serving the common welfare, primarily through grantmaking.
- Private Corporations
- A company that is owned by one person or a small group of people, for example a family, and whose shares are available only to specific individuals and are not traded on a stock market.
- Institutions of Higher Education
- Educational institutions that meet the requirements specified at 20 U.S.C. § 1001.
- Commercial, Federal or Farm Credit System Lending Institutions
- An accredited financial organization such as a bank, credit union, or finance company that makes agriculture loans and may or may not also be a depository institution.
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 Government.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
