NEW YORK — State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball announced that $1 million is now available for farm and food businesses to purchase equipment for processing, packing, aggregating, storing, and distributing of New York grown or produced food products through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Grant Program.
According to a press release, the funding announced is the second of two grant programs announced last year as part of a cooperative agreement between New York State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service to expand middle of the supply chain work to create a more resilient food system in New York State.
“These equipment-only grants are the second round of funding in the RFSI program, aimed at strengthening and investing in New York’s food systems,” Ball said in the release. “Purchasing critical new equipment will be a game changer for so many farm and food businesses and will allow them to connect more New Yorkers to fresh, local foods.
“I thank all our partners for their work moving this progressive programming forward and look forward to seeing the impact these projects have on our communities.”
“This second round of RFSI funding offers an opportunity for those who may have important projects that do not include construction or significant operational changes, but are smaller, and slated only for equipment expansions and upgrades,” Farm and Food Growth Fund President and CEO Todd Erling added.
“It also allows that for those who were not successful in the very competitive Infrastructure round to apply for the Equipment-Only round and still have meaningful impact on our food system.”
Applications for the RFSI’s Equipment-Only grants are open to New York State entities and will provide awards ranging from $30,000 to $100,000.
Following USDA’s accelerated timeline for the execution of this program, the application period is underway and will close on July 23. The Department will award projects as soon as possible, and all equipment must be purchased by Dec. 31.
The funding may only be used for post-harvest equipment that will expand capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, or distribution of locally and regionally produced food products, including value-added food products. Successful projects will focus on increasing the supply of New York-sourced food products available in New York markets.
Competitive project applications will benefit multiple producers and multiple markets. There is no match requirement for this funding.
The Department has partnered with Farm and Food Growth Fund, Inc (FFGF) to administer the funding. All applications must be submitted via the Farm and Food Growth Fund Application Portal at http://ffgf.smapply.us/. No paper applications will be accepted.
As part of the RFSI Grant Program, the Department is also partnering with Tierra Viva Collective to provide technical assistance on developing a competitive application and to facilitate language access assistance for applicants who speak Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin. Contact gaby@tierravivacollective.org for more information.
Complete information about how to apply for Equipment-Only Grants is available on the Farm and Food Growth Fund RFSI website and the Department’s website. Live Office Hours to provide information about the opportunity will be held on July 14 at noon.
Registration is available at https://ift.tt/xmLnYqN
