Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA AMS TM RFSP G 21 0009
The Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), designed to help communities build stronger, more connected local and regional food systems. At its core, the program funds partnerships that bring together public and private resources so they can plan, coordinate, and develop food system projects that improve the viability and resilience of local or regional food economies. A key emphasis is strengthening resilience in ways that also support pandemic response and recovery, recognizing that disruptions like COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in supply chains and local market access.
This opportunity focuses on organizing and activating partnerships rather than supporting isolated efforts by a single organization. Applicants are expected to work with a network of partners to catalyze local or regional food system development, meaning they help move ideas into coordinated action across a defined geography or food shed. The partnership is responsible for setting shared priorities, linking people to services and resources, and creating a practical way to track and measure progress toward common goals. In other words, RFSP is meant to fund collaboration that leads to measurable improvements in how food is produced, processed, distributed, marketed, and accessed within a region.
RFSP gives partnerships flexibility in how they define their working area and approach. Partnerships are explicitly authorized to determine the size and scope of the local or regional food system where the project goals, outreach objectives, and eligible activities will take place. They are also expected to coordinate with AMS to receive technical assistance, which suggests USDA intends to be an active support resource during project implementation rather than just a funder. In addition, partnerships must conduct outreach and education to encourage participation in the partnership agreement and in the eligible activities that flow from it, which helps ensure the work is inclusive, widely understood, and able to attract the producers, businesses, and organizations needed for real system change.
To be competitive, applicant partnerships need to show they can bring a mix of financial and technical capabilities to the table. This typically means the group as a whole can handle planning and coordination, community engagement, and the practical technical work needed to move food system projects forward (for example, market development, aggregation and distribution planning, food safety or value-chain coordination, or business and infrastructure support). USDA also expects evidence of experience or clear readiness to collaborate effectively across sectors, including both public and private entities. The program places value on approaches that are innovative but also sustainable and measurable, so proposals should not only describe what they want to do, but how it will last and how success will be tracked.
From the posted details, RFSP is listed under CFDA (now Assistance Listing) 10.177, and the funding instrument is a grant. The award ceiling is $1,000,000 per award, and the agency anticipated making about 50 awards for this cycle. The opportunity number is USDA AMS TM RFSP G 21 0009. The original posting indicates it was created on May 5, 2021, with an original closing date of July 6, 2021. Eligibility is broadly described as "Others" with clarification referenced in an additional eligibility section, which typically means applicants needed to consult the full notice to confirm which types of organizations and partnership structures qualified.
Overall, RFSP is best understood as a program that funds organized regional collaboration to strengthen food system capacity and resilience. It supports partnerships that can define a regional strategy, coordinate participants and services, engage the community through outreach and education, use USDA technical assistance, and deliver results that can be demonstrated through clear metrics tied to stronger, more resilient local and regional food economies.Apply for USDA AMS TM RFSP G 21 0009
- The Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service in the agriculture sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Regional Food System Partnerships" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.177.
- This funding opportunity was created on May 05, 2021.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 06, 2021 No Explanation. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).
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