The Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) program supports partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems. The program focuses on strengthening the viability and resilience of regional food economies through collaboration and coordination. RFSP supports public-private partnerships that plan and develop relationships between local and regional producers, processors, intermediaries, and institutional markets or institutional food service operations through local and regional producers and local and regional food systems. RFSP offers three types of projects, 24-month Planning and Design, 3-year Implementation and Expansion Projects, and Farm to Institution. The funding for each project ranges from $100,000 to $1,000,000.
Eligible entities include agricultural businesses or cooperatives, producer networks or associations, community supported agriculture networks or associations, food councils, local governments, nonprofit corporations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities, and tribal governments. Eligible partners include state agencies or regional authorities, philanthropic corporations, institutions of higher education, and commercial, federal or farm credit system lending institutions.
The RFSP program requires cash-only matching fund contributions in an amount equal to 25 percent of the total Federal portion of the grant.
For more information, go to the RFSP Awarded Grants webpage
Additional Information
- RFSP Fact Sheet (pdf)
- LAMP Stakeholder Toolkit (pdf)
- COVID-19 Resources for Grants
- The 2022 RFSP grant application period is now closed. Applications received after the due date will be subject to the AMS' - Policy on Late Applications (pdf).