Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) was awarded $8.6 million through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program. The money, which will be provided through a competitive grant process, is part of an overall $420 million the USDA committed to states to build resilience in the middle of the supply chain and strengthen local and regional food systems by creating new revenue streams for producers.
Eligible projects include those that expand capacity for aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of food products, for specialty crops, dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other food products, excluding meat and poultry.
The funds for RFSI come out of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) for states and territories via formula funding. To award its share, KDA will work in partnership with USDA to make competitive subawards to support infrastructure and equipment grants.
- Infrastructure
The infrastructure grant is available for applicants that are interested in building resiliency across the middle-of-the-food-supply-chain. Applicants can apply for cost-share support from a minimum of $100,000 to a maximum of $3,000,000 for eligible projects. Successful applicants will need to provide 50% or 25% match based upon them meeting federal definitions for Small or Historically Underserved Business Owners. The 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. - Equipment-only
The equipment only grant provides funding for eligible equipment purchases that 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. Applicants can apply for cost-share support from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000 for eligible equipment. Successful applicants can receive 100% funding for approved equipment.
The grants will be awarded in two funding streams:
Applicants can only apply for and receive funding through one of the funding categories (Infrastructure or Equipment-only). Applicants are require to have a federal “Unique Entity ID” (UEI) number, therefore interested entities without a UEI are encouraged to go ahead and make application for their UEI at SAM.gov, there is no cost to register in SAM.gov.
In Kentucky’s proposed state plan, KDA will collaborate with three partners to assist applicants with technical assistance in the RFSI program. Those partners are The Kentucky Center for Agriculture & Rural Development (KCARD), the University of Kentucky’s – The Food Connection (TFC), and the Community Farm Alliance (CFA). More information will be available on their roles in the program with the approval of the state plan.
Prior to submitting its state plan, KDA conducted a public survey to gather opinions on how best the USDA funding could be used. The questions were constructed in a way to allow individuals to be better able to express themselves more openly and honestly and help the KDA receive more genuine and authentic suggestions. With these genuine comments, it has helped the KDA in making the state plan adhere to Kentucky’s needs.
KDA has submitted its state plan for the RFSI program to USDA for approval. Upon approval of the state plan, the application portal will open. The anticipated date for the application portal is January 2024. This page will be updated as the process moves forward.