Funding Opportunity Title: Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program Cooperative Agreements

Funding Opportunity Number: USDA-AMS-TM-RFSI-C-23-0001

Funding Authorization: Section 1001(b)(4) of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 (Pub. L. 117— 2), as amended, authorizes the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to make grants and agreements to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency.

Application Support: For support on developing your application contace the Food and Agriculture Development Center Network www.foodandag.mt.gov for application assistance.

Equipment Only: Applicants may request more than one piece of equipment as long they are allowable, allocable, and reasonable, align with the scope of the project, and collectivity meet the funding amount requirements.

Equipment for the purposes of this program are not restricted to those items costing over $5,000. As long as the total cost of the project remains between $10,000 and $100,000 and expenses are eligible there is no cost restriction on individual purchases.

Program Goals: The overall goal of RFSI is to create more and better processing options for local and regional producers across the specialty crops, dairy, grain (for food), and other sectors (i.e. non- meat and poultry sectors) by targeting gaps and opportunities in the pandemic assistance, Food Systems Transformation (FST) programs, and existing USDA grant programs that support the agricultural supply chain.

AMS encourages applications that benefit Small and Underserved Business Owners, Historically Underserved Farmers or Ranchers or for other businesses that qualify under the Small Business Administration (SBA) categories of Small Disadvantaged Business, Women Owned Small Business, and Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. For projects intending to serve these entities, applicants should engage and involve those beneficiaries when developing projects and applications.

In all programs and initiatives, USDA promotes climate-resilient landscapes and rural economic systems, including tools to support agriculture, forests, grazing lands, and rural communities. AMS encourages applicants to consider including goals and activities related to mitigating and adapting to climate change in their project’s design and implementation.

Entities eligible for Infrastructure Grants are:

• 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). For more information on these size standards, please visit SBA’s Size Standards webpage. For a quick check on whether your business qualifies, please use the Size Standards Tool.
• 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 product.

All applicant businesses and organizations must be domestically owned, and applicants’ facilities must be physically located within the 50 States of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Available Funding: Approximately $1 million in American Rescue Plan funding is available for this program. The minimum award amount is $10,000 and maximum award amount is $100,000. MDA expects to make multiple awards from this funding.

Critical Dates:

*All times in Mountain Standard Time
**Call information will be posted on the MDA website