Transportation and Marketing

Regional Food System Partnerships Program

Fiscal Year 2021 Description of Funded Projects

Number of Grants Awarded: 30

Amount of Funds Awarded: $14,809,185

For more information, please visit the grant program's website: 

https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/rfsp

NOTE: The below project descriptions were provided by the grant recipients.

Alaska

Recipient: Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, Sitka, AK

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $189,100

Match Amount: $20,000

Total Project Amount: $209,100

Feeding Change: Increasing Food Security and Workforce Development Opportunities in Alaska 

The impacts of Covid-19 highlighted long standing workforce development and food insecurity issues in 

Alaska. The seafood industry has long provided the backbone of coastal economies but relied on outside 

labor for processing, marketing, and shipping. Quarantine requirements led to significant labor 

shortages and high costs. In addition, currently less than 1 percent of the seafood caught in Alaska stays 

in Alaska to benefit the local economy. Alaska is one of the top five most food insecure states in the 

nation. 95% of the $2 billion of food Alaskan’s purchase is imported. 14% of Alaskans, including 20% of 

children, face food insecurity. In March 2020, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Catch 

Together formed a state-wide-coalition of non-profits, tribal organizations, military organizations, city 

and boroughs, foundations, fishermen, and seafood processors to address food insecurity and workforce 

development challenges. This initiative provided stipends and workforce support to the seafood industry 

and deployed $2.5 million to purchase local seafood for distribution, providing 630,000+ free meals of 

Alaska seafood to individuals and families facing food insecurity.

The goal of the proposed 2-year project is to build on this successful pandemic initiative by designing 

and implementing a planning and assessment process to establish a 10-year, statewide, seafood 

distribution and workforce development plan that includes a sustainable non-federal financial strategy 

to serve Alaska’s rural and historically marginalized communities.
California

Recipient: The Regents of the University of California – College of Agriculture & Environmental Science, 

Davis, CA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $813,744

Match Amount: $85,082

Total Project Amount: $898,826

Creating High Value Market Opportunities for California’s Small- and Mid-Scale Meat Producers 

Our July 2021 UC Davis Food Systems Lab (FSL) study derived from interviews with over 30 supply chain 

stakeholders, a literature review and consultation with the California Department of Food and 

Agriculture, revealed challenges and opportunities. The pandemic, drought, and fires intensify the 

already acute processing challenges linked to California’s inspection system, insufficient producer 

collaboration and NIMBYism often associated with anti‐meat sentiments. The study recommends how 

producers can improve processing access and market opportunities. This proposal builds from that study 

and seeks to facilitate development of effective collaboration among links in supply chains and to 

optimize processing, inspection and marketing systems that convey the value propositions of the small 

and mid‐scale producers. The FSL team, its collaborator from the Niche Meat Processing Assistance 

Network, and our strategic advisors will work with two cohorts of producers, processors and buyers over 

three years in two regions to implement synergistic actions that will optimize processing and marketing 

of high value meat from small and mid‐scale producers. Our primary goal is to create two new regional 

supply chains that highlight product attributes conveying quality and value. We aim to supply 

institutional systems such as UC Davis Health and sports venues with ground meat and restaurants and 

other retailers with the more expensive cuts. The work will ultimately result in more economic 

opportunity for producers and increased system resilience.

Recipient: San Diego Food System Alliance, San Diego, CA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $711,624

Match Amount: $237,706

Total Project Amount: $949,330

San Diego County Food Vision 2030 Implementation - Local Food Economy Lab 

The San Diego Food System Alliance (Alliance), is a diverse and inclusive multi-sector network that works 

across the region to promote collaboration, influence policy, and catalyze transformation in the food 

system. After a 2 year planning process engaging with over 250 cross-sector organizations and nearly 

3,000 individuals—primarily low-income residents, tribal communities, food producers, businesses, and 

workers—the Alliance is launching San Diego County Food Vision 2030 in July 2021. Food Vision 2030, 

visualized through a report and a website including an indicator dashboard (sdfoodvision2030.org), 

outlines 10 objectives positioned to transform our regional food system to accomplish 3 goals: 1) 

cultivate racial justice, 2) fight climate change, and 3) build resilience.

To advance several Food Vision 2030 Objectives, the project goal is to launch a ”Local Food Economy 

Lab” that centers equity and community ownership and works to improve the viability of local farms, 
fisheries, and food businesses. The Lab will engage with a diverse set of public and private partners 

within the Food Vision 2030 network, including local farms, fisheries, food hubs, food businesses, 

institutions, mid-tier value chain businesses, technical assistance providers, government, philanthropic, 

financing, and economic development partners to coordinate customized business and technical 

assistance, mobilize funding, influence policy, and scale up local, equitable, and sustainable value chains. 

The Lab will also facilitate the economic case-making for investing in the regional food system. Through 

deep collaboration with partners, the project will involve two phases: 1) co-design the Lab and 

reimagine value chains, 2) implement the Lab services.

Recipient: San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, San Francisco, CA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $163,133

Match Amount: $63,407

Total Project Amount: $226,540

San Francisco Bay Area Local Food Purchasing Collaborative 

The San Francisco Bay Area Local Food Purchasing Collaborative is a transformational collaboration that

will leverage the power of institutional purchasing to build a more resilient, sustainable and equitable

regional food system in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Collaborative brings together all the stakeholders necessary to create this much-needed change. It

includes: some of the largest public institutions in the region – school districts, hospital systems,

corrections facilities – collectively serving 100,000+ people per day and spending more than $40 million

annually on food; communities spanning the geography of the region, including the three largest cities;

local and regional food policy advocates working to align food purchasing with community values; City

and County governments from across the region; and three leading organizations with expertise 

providing technical assistance to schools, hospitals and corrections institutions.

The Collaborative is built around the Good Food Purchasing Program, which provides the structure and

tools needed to measure and track institutional food purchasing, determine aggregate demand for food

aligned with community values, identify and break down barriers to local food procurement, and enable

participation of local suppliers in institutional supply chains.

This planning and design project will result in a Bay Area Good Food Purchasing Roadmap and technical

assistance toolkit, including a detailed implementation guide to support institutions in meeting local 

food purchasing targets. By identifying and addressing roadblocks to good food purchasing, the 

Collaborative will accelerate institutions’ local food procurement and create a model for scaling local 

food purchasing in other regions.

Colorado

Recipient: Northern Colorado Foodshed Project, Longmont, CO

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,262
Match Amount: $58,857

Total Project Amount: $308,119

Designing and Building an Equitable, Vibrant, and Resilient Local Food System in Northern 

Colorado 

This project brings together public, private, and nonprofit organizations, along with community 

members, producers, and resources, to design and build a more equitable, vibrant, and resilient local 

food system in Northern Colorado. Our goal for the project is to address three key areas of growth and 

opportunity: food sovereignty and access, community outreach and education, and production growth 

and land access. To achieve this goal, we will: (1) Convene authentic community collaborations with 

established and potential partners to envision, define, and design the local food system scope and 

structure. This includes developing data-informed planning processes and frameworks to build an 

equitable, vibrant, and resilient local food system that is inclusive of all people and addresses the three 

key areas of opportunity and growth; (2) Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data within the 

three key areas of opportunity and to create innovative, sustainable, and community-driven solutions 

toward a more equitable, vibrant, and resilient local food system. This includes conducting assessments 

and feasibility studies, as well as researching metrics to measure, evaluate, and document the 

partnership’s work. We will also establish time-defined performance benchmarks for achieving 

partnership goals; and (3) Form and establish a local food equity advisory council to promote 

interconnectivity and inclusivity by prioritizing marginalized voices in the local food system, generating a 

dialogue between diverse stakeholders and community members, and building capacity for leaders in a 

more equitable framework.

Connecticut

Recipient: Windham Regional Community Council, Inc., Willimantic, CT

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,715

Match Amount: $75,292

Total Project Amount: $325,007

Rooting Deep and Scaling Up: A Roadmap for Food System Equity and Viability in Eastern CT 

“Rooting Deep and Scaling Up: A Roadmap for Food System Equity and Viability in Eastern CT” is a 

partnership facilitated by the Windham Community Food Network, FRESH New London, the CT Food 

System Alliance, and Community Foundation of Eastern CT, that convenes producers, community 

members, stakeholders and allies to capture community-level food system innovation and momentum, 

particularly that catalyzed by COVID-19, and scale it up to strengthen regional food system resilience. 

Specifically, the partnership will explore and develop opportunities that integrate viability for small-scale 

producers in Eastern CT with equitable access to healthy food and food system decision-making for the 

diverse residents of the region, one-third of whom struggle to make ends meet, to the mutual benefit of 

both. The values-based partnership is structured around a cohort of Producer and Community 

Advocates, supported by a core of non-profit, philanthropic and university allies, and integrated with a 
broader coalition of regional and statewide food system stakeholders and networks. Through this 

project, the partnership will: Capture current regional food system innovations, stakeholders, needs and 

opportunities, through a Landscape Assessment and Roadmap, and Community Survey Campaigns to 

identify marketing opportunities and community priorities; Explore, develop and fund projects and 

community campaigns around Roadmap “leverage points” that simultaneously expand markets for 

small-scale producers and support equitable food access; Sustain partners and the partnership, by 

facilitating connectivity, collaboration and capacity-building through communication tools, common 

goals, shared resources, and trainings; and Leverage findings through integration into the statewide 

policy agenda and Food Action Plan.

Florida

Recipient: Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, Fort Myers, FL

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $643,500

Match Amount: $108,926

Total Project Amount: $752,426

SWFL Fresh: Choose Local, Choose Fresh 

In 2017, following Hurricane Irma, the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council (SWFRPC) and the 

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) worked with small to midsized growers in Southwest Florida (SWFL) to identify negative impacts on their production capacity and 

how to make them more resilient. An Agricultural Sustainability Study funded by the Department of 

Economic Opportunity (DEO) resulted in an analysis that identified numerous threats and opportunities 

these growers face. The research confirmed consumers, producers, and retailers all find value in 

marketing a “local” brand for agricultural products. The Federal Economic Development Administration 

(EDA) then funded the development of a SWFL brand: “SWFL Fresh: Choose Local, Choose Fresh.”

Our project will implement the trademarked regional brand to showcase SWFL food producers and their 

products through multiple marketing platforms. The brand will support the development of new 

markets for farmers, increase public knowledge of healthy, local food sources, and connect food 

producers to consumers. Our marketing campaign will expand markets, increase farmer profitability, 

and promote the local economy in our six-county region while exposing consumers to higher quality and 

healthier food. This includes expanding access to farmers’ markets, farm stands, community supported 

agriculture, and farm-to-school initiatives. By supporting the creation of markets for locally produced 

foods with government subsidies and the adoption of tools that encourage healthy food choices among 

socially disadvantaged populations, we will improve food security for low-income individuals.

Hawaii

Recipient: Hawaii Good Food Alliance, Honolulu, HI

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion
Award Amount: $829,510

Match Amount: $211,914

Total Project Amount: $1,041,424

Hawaii Food Hub Hui: A Statewide Partnership for Supply Chain Integration 

The Hawaii Good Food Alliance (HGFA) and Hawaii Food Hub Hui (HFHH) will increase the success and 

collaboration of twelve food hubs across five Hawaiian Islands, thereby fostering a growth in local food 

enterprises and sales, while developing resources and sharing best practices to strengthen Hawaii’s local 

food system and supply chain integration. Key partnerships include 12 Hawaii food hubs, the University 

of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture, Hawaii Investment Ready, City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii 

Department of Education’s Child Nutrition Program, Hawaii Pacific Health system, other food systems 

stakeholders.

This project aims to increase food hubs’ sales and profitability by:

• Increasing collaboration amongst food hubs, including assessment of individual hub market 

areas and development needs within the statewide landscape. PDs will share best practices, 

deliver technical assistance, provide coordination and leadership to the food hubs, and facilitate 

the development of a resource database for shared information and capacity building.

• Leveraging public-private partnerships to further food hub development to address the 

processing, storage, and transportation gaps in the food system supply chain through publicprivate partnership investments. This will include investing in equipment upgrades to meet 

expansion needs, advocating for institutional buying statewide, and identifying public and 

private sector funding sources to provide capital to food hubs.

• Growing the number of local farmers/producers benefiting from Hawaii food hubs by supporting 

the hubs with staff time for producer outreach and on-boarding, along with marketing funds to 

build the demand for local food in their regions.

Idaho

Recipient: Valley Family Health Care, Payette, ID

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $203,590

Match Amount: $125,122

Total Project Amount: $328,712

Western Treasure Valley Food System Partnership 

This proposed 24-month Western Treasure Valley Food Systems Partnership planning and design project

builds on a recent history of collaboration as well as regional food system assessments. This project will

create the container for previously disparate or siloed public and private partners to come together and

determine how to build capacity and develop a systems approach to support an integrated and healthbased regional food economy. Focusing on Malheur County, Oregon and the Western Treasure Valley 

region that spans south eastern Oregon and western Idaho, the Partnership will develop a food hub and 

shared use kitchen feasibility study and business plan to increase regional capacity for processing, food 

distribution and storage, small to mid-scale value chain market development, coordination and delivery 
of nutrition education, and food access solutions. The Partnership will facilitate cross-sectoral and peerled planning sessions and workshops to develop an approach that is inclusive, providing a forum for 

participants and community to identify and prioritize strategies or collective impact actions.

Indiana

Recipient: Northwest Indiana Food Council, Crown Point, CT

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $998,298

Match Amount: $240,150

Total Project Amount: $1,238,448

Partners IN Food: Centering Collaboration, Resilience, and Equity for the Indiana Food System 

Partners IN Food formalizes longstanding partnerships from Indiana’s public, private, and nonprofit 

sectors to create Hoosier Grown, a new statewide food/farm nonprofit organization with collective 

action metrics tied to the Indiana Food Charter. The proposed project builds on a previous USDA grant 

that established the Indiana Value Chain Network, an association of public, private, and nonprofit 

groups that researched and produced information on the roles, values, and impacts of value chain work 

in Indiana. Though direct, intermediated, and value-added sales have increased in Indiana, most recent 

data (USDA, 2017) indicate that, for each market channel, the majority of Indiana’s sales dollars are 

captured by a small percentage of the farm businesses reporting sales. To address this disparity, 

Partners IN Food has two objectives: (1) Serve the needs of all farmers seeking local and regional sales 

channels for their diversified farm production and aggregation businesses and (2) Reflect the needs of 

communities and a diversity of farmers including those historically underrepresented. Rooted in equity 

and sustainability for all Indiana producers, businesses, and eaters, project activities support the 

fulfillment of those two goals. Through project activities and aligned partner events, Indiana 

communities will have the opportunity to contribute to the conversation around local food systems, 

community health, equity, and Trauma-Informed Learning Collaboratives. Proposed activities will bring 

state agency partners to the grassroots table to work together toward a more resilient, sustainable 

Indiana food and farming system where producers of color, female-identifying, and non-traditional 

farmers and food businesses can launch, grow, and thrive.

Kansas

Recipient: KC Healthy Kids, Kansas City, KS

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $79,145

Total Project Amount: $329,145
Envisioning A Collaborative Kansas City Food Shed 

The coalition will conduct the Envisioning A Collaborative Kansas City Food Shed initiative, led by key 

partners KC Healthy Kids (KCHK), Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), GroundWork, and New Growth, 

and informed by a diverse and inclusive array of collaborators and stakeholders, located throughout a 

geographically and demographically diverse food shed region comprised of eight (8) counties: Allen, 

Douglas, Wyandotte, Leavenworth in Kansas; and Cass, Jackson, Lafayette, and St. Clair in Missouri. By 

conducting a food access policy equity assessment and continuous, robust engagement of stakeholders 

at each level of the growth to consumption process, the Coalition expects to significantly strengthen the 

mid-tier value chain and form a strategy for policy change through measurable objectives and 

corresponding activities. The project objectives are as follows: 1. Convene impacted stakeholders to 

build connections, collaboration, and shared understanding of the current food system and establish a 

collective vision for a resilient, equitable food system. 2: Conduct an equity-based food system

assessment to understand a) gaps and inequities in the regional food system for bi-state Kansas City, 

and b) assets and opportunities, including an inventory of food system organizations and their efforts, as 

well as associated impacts, gaps, or duplications. 3: Synthesize findings and collective vision into 

recommendations and action planning for building a cooperative, resilient, and equitable food system.

Kentucky

Recipient: University of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington, KY

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $244,801

Match Amount: $25,695

Total Project Amount: $270,496

Growing Healthy Appalachia Partnership 

The Growing Healthy Appalachia Partnership (GHAP) cultivates regional food economies of Central 

Appalachia through public-private partnerships that combine institutional procurement, cooperative 

economic models, culinary confidence building, and value chain coordination for small and mid-sized 

farms. Through community-informed design and evaluation, our planning project sets the stage for 

future implementation across the Appalachian Regional Healthcare system and beyond.

GHAP combines the powers of a regional healthcare system (Appalachian Regional Healthcare) as both a 

major employer and mid-tier purchaser of food, the expertise of community-based food and agriculture 

organizations (Community Farm Alliance, Grow Appalachia), and the research strengths of a land grant 

and medical research Institution (University of Kentucky). We seek support from the RFSP program to 

grant us the time and resources necessary to identify how we can best leverage our respective strengths 

and resources to serve the communities of Central Appalachia and grow a regional food economy that 

fosters a culture of health.

Building on previous research, GHAP works to simultaneously 1) Expand markets for direct-to-consumer 

markets for local food in ways that directly address barriers for accessing and enjoying seasonal produce 

(time, money, knowledge, skill) and 2) Establish mid-tier markets for local foods by leveraging the 
purchasing power and infrastructure of institutional dining. Through the formation of the GHAP and the 

support of this planning grant, our region will evolve from short-lived and disconnected efforts to 

support local foods to strategic and sustainable initiatives that foster a vibrant and healthy food system 

in Central Appalachia.

Louisiana

Recipient: Greater New Orleans Development Foundation, New Orleans, LA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $25,000

Total Project Amount: $275,000

GNOFAB: Greater New Orleans Food & Beverage Entrepreneur Ecosystem 

New Orleans is synonymous with Food & Beverage and boasts world‐renowned brands like Zatarains 

and Tabasco. Despite this reputation and success with regionally known brands like Blue Runner, the 

GNO F&B entrepreneurial ecosystem is difficult to navigate. To successfully launch and scale an F&B 

business/product, an entrepreneur needs significant funding, access to resources, and deep industry 

connections. While GNO’s F&B start‐up ecosystem is fairly robust, many companies are forced to leave 

the market to scale because the region 1) Lacks the necessary value chain production capabilities and 

capacity (i.e. pasteurization, cold storage, FDA warehouses); and 2) Lacks a critical mass of investors 

familiar with F&B.

GNOFAB seeks to build on GNO’s F&B legacy and create a sustainable framework for entrepreneurial 

success by:

• Conducting a S.W.O.T. Analysis and Solutions Report of current F&B ecosystem

• Formulating Business Development, Retention, and Expansion strategies to foster growth, 

increase capital investment, and grow revenues of F&B businesses

• Providing Technical Assistance to both emerging F&B companies and to legacy F&B companies 

positioned for growth

• Expand the New Orleans Food & Beverage Industry Group.

Massachusetts

Recipient: Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, Great Barrington, MA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $480,948

Match Amount: $51,441

Total Project Amount: $532,389

Strengthening Support for Local and Regional Livestock Processing in the Berkshire-Taconic 

Region 
Berkshire Agricultural Ventures (BAV) recognizes that the Berkshire-Taconic region, a three state, four 

county area in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut, is well-positioned to develop a formal 

collaboration of existing producers, agencies, and agricultural service providers to address long-standing 

food system issues in the livestock supply chain. BAV will serve as the project manager, leveraging 

existing relationships with livestock supply chain enterprises, economic development and planning 

agencies, and agricultural service providers to build capacity for partnership activities. Building on 

previous planning work, the proposed project will support the partnership in its continued development 

and implementation of a $1.5M regional meat processing support fund and technical assistance 

program and a livestock working group to improve value chain coordination and identify next steps for 

shared infrastructure improvements and regional marketing opportunities. The outcomes for the 

proposed project will be improved processing, new supply chain infrastructure, and enhanced marketing 

opportunities for 3 meat processors and 20 livestock producers.

Recipient: Growing Places Garden Project, Inc., Leominster, MA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,404

Match Amount: $157,114

Total Project Amount: $406,518

North Central Massachusetts Food System Partnership 

In its 27-town footprint, North Central Massachusetts (NCMA) hosts 250+ farms, with most identifying 

as small or medium in size. However, agriculture only comprises about 2% of the region’s total 

employment, and residents are among the unhealthiest in the state.

Representing diverse sectors of the food system, the North Central MA Food System Partnership has 

been building momentum over two years to create a sustainable and resilient local food system. During 

its development, COVID-19 forced the region to move local food through new channels to keep the food 

system viable. This further increased awareness about NCMA’s untapped potential and laid a solid 

foundation for the Partnership to build from.

Consequently, the North Central MA Food System Partnership is poised to create a vibrant local food 

economy and improve the health of residents. Over the next two years, they will conduct a 

comprehensive planning process to create a sustainable and resilient NCMA food value chain and 

business model.

Key activities that will help achieve Partnership goals include a Strategic Planning process via a 

Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results ‘SOAR’ analysis to formalize the partnership’s vision, 

mission, values, goals , membership, and structure; a Feasibility Study to develop an operating and 

business plan for a regional Food Campus; development of a Resource Library with available funding, 

technical assistance, and evidence-based information to help grow the Food Campus; and the activation 

of a bi-directional Communication Network to connect diverse sectors within the NCMA food system.
Maryland

Recipient: Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center, Easton, MD

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $104,956

Match Amount: $34,985

Total Project Amount: $139,941

Delmarva Farm to Freezer Program 

The Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center (ESEC) and the Chesapeake Culinary Center (CCC), two 

nonprofit organizations on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore, are partnering as leaders in adapting, 

initiating, and executing a regional Farm to Freezer value-chain coordination program. The partnership 

combines each organization’s expertise in a more resilient/sustainable food system. ESEC is a leading 

provider of entrepreneurial technical assistance and programs that enable the commercialization of 

innovations/technologies in the agriculture sector. CCC is the region’s guiding force in operating a 

community kitchen, processing local produce, and making pre-prepared meals available to populations 

with limited food access. The objectives of the program include: extending the rural region’s growing 

season by preserving fresh fruits/vegetables using advanced IQF technology that retains the fresh-grade 

nutrition levels; increasing local market revenues for local rural farmers/growers to scale their 

production by providing a 12-month guaranteed purchase order for produce in pursuit of increased 

margins/profit; expanding access to local, nutritious food throughout the year for residents of 

Maryland’s Eastern Shore by extending the accessible season to local produce through our advanced 

processing and distribution system; and setting an example for other regional parts of Maryland to 

improve their food systems by replicating/adapting their own Farm to Freezer programs. During this 

project period, the partnership will plan and develop an implementation strategy for establishing an 

appropriate-sized processing facility (include an IQF system), a storage and distribution system that will 

increase food access, an approach to control pricing and increase farmer margins, and a fully sustainable 

business going forward.

Maine

Recipient: Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, ME

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $882,165

Match Amount: $88,533

Total Project Amount: $970,698

Strengthening and Building Resilience in a Regional Seafood System 

Our partnership shares the goal of achieving a resilient regional seafood system by building value and

demand for seafood from New England. Regional seafood represents a great opportunity to provide a

healthy, responsibly harvested, climate-friendly source of local protein for New England, as well as a

decent livelihood for coastal communities, fishing families, and the seafood supply chain. This has only
become clearer in the wake of the pandemic, which served to amplify the challenges already faced by 

our region’s seafood economy. Despite the healthy, abundant fisheries available in our region, regional 

fish is challenged to compete with inexpensive, imported seafood. There is a need to build and 

strengthen infrastructure to improve quality and value for the seafood industry, and to build awareness 

and demand through buyer education and connecting the often-disconnected participants in the 

regional seafood supply chain. Our partnership is comprised of organizations that have long histories of 

working individually and together to improve the business opportunities for fishermen and markets for 

regional seafood. We include two fishing associations, one nonprofit research institution, two lending 

and business assistance partners, a seafood offloading site and auction, and a mid-tier seafood value 

chain business.

We will also engage with other organizations and businesses through this project’s convenings. We plan 

to work together to address the challenges of improving quality and consistency of product, to provide

fishermen and processors with better information and access to capital to invest in innovation, and to

build meaningful demand for regional seafood through buyer education.

Recipient: Harvesting Good, Yarmouth, ME

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $792,966

Match Amount: $198,255

Total Project Amount: $991,221

Creating a Mid-tier New England based Value Chain to support Farmers, Processors, and Food to 

Insecure Populations 

Harvesting Good (HG), a Maine based public benefit corporation, and its partners including Good 

Shepherd Food Bank (GSFB), University of Maine Cooperative Extension, agricultural processors and 

farmers, Hannaford regional grocery chain and Sodexo an institutional food service corporation, present 

this RFSP application to support the development of a value added mid-tier, regional food chain to 

supply fresh processed vegetables throughout the six New England States. Under this proposal, HG will 

purchase local vegetables (broccoli) grown in Northern Maine from Circle B Farms (CBF), contract with 

food processors W.R. Allen (WRA) and Wyman’s to floret, blanche, freeze, pack and store, and sell it 

initially through Hannaford’s 132 store retail chain and to Sodexo’s higher education clients. This 

application supports the implementation of New England’s only regional vegetable processing operation 

to operate at scale. This grant will support HG’s administrative costs, development of a marketing 

program, training and technical support for farmers and processors, and distribution of frozen 

vegetables throughout the foodbank network. This public/private partnership will generate over $8.4M 

in new revenue to the agriculture sector, create 52 full and part time jobs, use underutilized processing 

facilities, establish a new market for Maine‘s vegetable growers, and extend the season for crop growth 

and processing. HG will invest over $2.5M to purchase state of the art processing equipment, renovate 

processing facilities, and supplement technical support. This project opens the door for Maine’s local 

vegetables to reach New England’s regional markets year-round.
Mississippi

Recipient: Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc., Clarksdale, MS

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $990,764

Match Amount: $105,456

Total Project Amount: $1,096,220

The Delta Food System Partnership 

The Delta Food System Partnership is our next step in the evolution of the northwest Mississippi 

regional food system, building on the organizing, recruitment, training, and capacity building efforts the 

partners have conducted during the last decade. Focusing on building an equitable, sustainable, and 

resilient regional trade network in the Delta region (from Memphis to Jackson), the Partnership will 

address the following needs:

• Local self-organization, to improve community self-awareness and cohesion

• Improved training and infrastructure, to grow volume while improving product integrity

• Helping producers, food businesses, and local communities think and work together by building 

and empowering relationships – and trust –throughout the food value chain.

The Partnership will meet these needs by:

• Investing in organizing and community development

• Expanding our existing communications and FarmQMS quality management tools and 

implementing an anchor farm program with the Partnership as a distribution intermediary

• Expanding the cooperative relationships we have built within the regional food supply chain.

Our work plan will proceed on three tracks: Community and Content, Scale and Integrity, and Market 

Facilitation. Led by the Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities (MDC), which has a 

fifty-year history providing agricultural technical assistance, our team includes Up In Farms, University of 

Mississippi’s Community First Research Center for Wellbeing and Creative Achievement, Chatham 

University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT), DRA Resources, 

Southern Rural Black Woman’s Initiative, and the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

Montana

Recipient: Lake County Community Development Corporation, Ronan, MT

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $999,184

Match Amount: $280,363

Total Project Amount: $1,279,547
Scaling the Northwest Food Hub Network: Leveraging institutional demand to build strong, 

resilient, regional agri-food value chains 

In 2020, the Northwest Food Hub Network launched as a pilot program to support the 3 most 

established cooperative food hubs in selling regional, sustainable food to institutions across the 

Northwest. Partners in this pilot include Farm Fare, (provides software to share inventory, logistics, and 

marketing) Kitchen Sync Strategies (brokers shared sales), Mission West Community Development 

Partners’ Cooperative Development Center (provides project coordination and administrative support) 

and Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center, (provides value-added processing). This pilot effort has 

helped the food hubs begin growing their presence in the complicated but largely untapped institutional 

food market channel (in healthcare, higher education, and K-12 schools) across WA, ID, and MT. This 

proposed project builds on this pilot and develops the critical infrastructure of a growing regional food 

hub network and enhances its capacity, efficiency, and sustainability. NWFHN will support the 3 hubs 

and their 200+ farms to develop improved food safety protocols, develop strategic regional production 

plans, leverage a shared sales brokerage model to increase sales to regional institutions, and design and 

implement interoperability between the existing food hub software and Farm Fare’s network 

technology to scale operations seamlessly. This project will result in integration between Farm Fare and 

Local Food Marketplace software platforms and a 160% increase in sales (~$610,000) to regional 

institutions and will create a holistic evaluation of the Network’s economic impact and operational 

model that will be shared with emergent regional food hub networks across the US.

North Carolina

Recipient: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $993,825

Match Amount: $234,891

Total Project Amount: $1,228,716

Strengthening Food & Agriculture Value Chains in NC Through Farm to Child Care Collaborations 

Our goal is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) local 

food procurement models that increase market viability for producers. Farm to ECE is often framed as a 

win-win for farmers and children under five, increasing healthy food access. Since 2016, the Center for 

Environmental Farming Systems has partnered with county-based Partnerships for Children to convene 

a Farm to ECE Community of Practice that provides technical assistance to childcare centers to purchase

local food and conduct experiential learning. However, our program evaluation and research indicate

that there are challenges to making Farm to ECE a profitable market for producers and food businesses. 

The principal issues are that childcare facilities purchase low volumes of local food (due to small serving 

sizes and enrollment), and purchasing and delivery are decentralized. We propose extending our existing 

partnerships to explore models of local food procurement that aggregate demand to address these 

challenges. We will work in six geographically, racially, and ethnically diverse rural counties across North 

Carolina with high child food insecurity rates to pilot four innovative procurement strategies: (1) 

collaborative purchasing among childcare centers; (2) working with caterers that serve multiple centers; 

(3) collaborating with K-12 school districts; and (4) selling to the families of enrolled children. Successful 

strategies will promote regional collaboration, coordinate menu development, and address delivery 
logistics. We use an inclusive, participatory approach to convene cross-sector teams in a community of 

practice to identify replicable Farm to ECE procurement models.

New York

Recipient: Glynwood Center, Inc., Cold Spring, NY

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $120,290

Match Amount: $31,234

Total Project Amount: $151,524

Hudson Valley Livestock Producer Network: Investigating collaborative solutions to improve the 

regional livestock system 

Given its proximity to New York City markets and agricultural land well suited to grass-based livestock

production, New York’s Hudson Valley has long been a region with promising potential to support

growth in the livestock sector.

This project builds upon the collective experience of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and

Farming (Glynwood) and the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Cornell) in

serving the livestock industry. Glynwood and Cornell will partner to engage directly with the Hudson

Valley Livestock Producer Group, formed in 2020 by Glynwood, to identify trade challenges and

brainstorm strategies to address them.

With support from RFSP, Glynwood and the Cornell Cooperative Extension Livestock Program Work

Team will form a Project Working Group, which will include representatives from the Hudson Valley

Livestock Producers Group. The Project Working Group will design and facilitate a feasibility study to

explore livestock sector:

• Production and capacity

• Human resource needs

• Sales opportunities

• Processing, storage and transportation

• Educational opportunities and needs

The Project Working Group will evaluate the data, write recommendations, and pursue funding to

enable future implementation of projects detailed through the study. While this project is regional in

scope, it is our hope that these efforts will be informative and catalytic to similar efforts elsewhere in

the country.

Oklahoma

Recipient: University of Oklahoma Health Science Center Board of Regents, Oklahoma City, OK

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion
Award Amount: $945,779

Match Amount: $407,277

Total Project Amount: $1,353,056

Oklahoma Local Agriculture Collaborative 

The Oklahoma Local Agriculture Collaborative (OLAC) will be a cross-sector statewide partnership among 

universities, state agencies, non-profit organizations, farmers markets, and agricultural entrepreneurs. 

The overarching goal of OLAC is to strengthen and grow the capacity of Oklahoma’s local agriculture in 

three areas: improving communication and access to underutilized resources; developing technical 

support systems to foster innovative practices; and creating a statewide registration and membership 

network for producers and direct-to-consumer markets. OLAC will specifically focus on rural markets 

and underserved communities to ensure that all Oklahomans have equal access.

Needs assessments conducted in 2019 and 2021 with Oklahoma farmers market managers and 

producers indicated a significant need for education, resources, and opportunities for networking and 

promotion. By providing trainings and membership options, OLAC will address these needs and create a 

more resilient infrastructure for Oklahoma’s farmers markets, food hubs, cooperatives, and other directto-consumer markets and producers.

Through the Regional Food Systems Partnership Grant, OLAC will design a digital resource hub, provide 

virtual and in-person regional trainings, develop technical resources for business expansion, and create a 

membership platform for farmers and growers. OLAC will establish an Advisory Board— consisting of 

diverse members from across the state—that will guide the organization and ensure all grant goals are 

being addressed and met. Oklahoma has many individual efforts to improve the local food system; 

however, a collaborative, statewide effort with a collective vision and goals is necessary for the local 

food system to meet its full potential and better serve growing consumer demand.

Oregon

Recipient: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $229,351

Match Amount: $64,971

Total Project Amount: $294,322

Embedding Oregon Food Sector Development in Racial Equity, Climate Change Resilience, Fair 

Labor Practices, and Strategic Collaboration 

The goal of this project is to create a set of action plans for regional food system development in Oregon

that: (1) identify opportunities for shared infrastructure (physical and human capital), and (2) prioritize,

in values and practices, racial equity, climate change resilience, and fair labor practices. Our partnership

centers on an existing network of eight local food hubs who will collaboratively research, train, vision,
and plan. These hubs will focus on connecting local growers to local/regional markets and/or on

incubating and making local/regional market connections for value-added food businesses.

Our long-term goal is a future where Oregon food hubs are successful because they:

• Share and practice a set of core values and principles that are fundamental to resilient and

equitable regional food systems: racial equity, fair labor practices, and climate change resilience.

• Share costly but vital operational infrastructure, including physical assets like trucks and cold

storage and human capital/systems like food safety expertise, marketing, and logistics.

• Source and market local food with unique attributes reflecting their individual regions.

• Aggregate food from their individual regions to sell collaboratively, under a shared brand or

aligned set of brands, into larger urban markets in the Pacific Northwest.

The partnership includes the Oregon Food Hub Network, the Oregon Community Food Systems

Network, the Oregon State University Center for Small Farms, Oregon Economic Development Districts,

Oregon Department of Agriculture, and other partners who bring specific expertise.

South Carolina

Recipient: Wholespire, Inc., Columbia, SC

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $479,893

Match Amount: $133,687

Total Project Amount: $613,580

Growing Local South Carolina 

The Growing Local South Carolina project formalizes a cross-sector local food system network aspiring to 

cultivate a thriving, equitable, inclusive, resilient, and just food economy providing access to healthy 

food for all. An investment from the USDA will enable the network to 1) connect and cultivate South 

Carolina’s local food economy, 2) develop a plan centered on addressing systemic inequities in the 

state’s food system, 3) catalyze action to address farmland loss, 4) increase capacity of the local food 

system, and 5) refine metrics for measuring partnerships.

The project is managed by Wholespire, governed by the South Carolina Food Policy Council, executed 

and evaluated by contracted project managers, and supported by partners as follows: the SC 

Department of Agriculture providing financial, programmatic, and marketing support; USC School of 

Public Health providing administrative, stakeholder, and food council support; the Rural Resource 

Coalition as an organizer for gatherings, facilitating a farmland working group, and providing 

engagement to indigenous communities; Bonita Global providing outreach to African American 

communities; Alianza Latina of the Midlands providing outreach to Latina communities; SC Food Hub 

Network expanding mid-tier value chains; and SC State University Small Business Development Center 

and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association providing technical assistance to food and farming 

businesses. The activities of the network are guided by input gathered at annual meetings and through 

several stakeholder engagement mechanisms designed to elevate minority voices. The project prioritizes 
strategies to fill food systems gaps, meet stakeholder needs, and facilitate market opportunities and 

food access solutions.

Texas

Recipient: Padilla Farm LLC, Harlingen, TX

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,996

Match Amount: $73,920

Total Project Amount: $323,916

Equitable Access to Farm Animal Harvesting for South Texas Farmers and Ranchers 

Padilla Farm LLC, based in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, shares a common problem with 

small farms with animals to harvest – there are no federally or state inspected harvesting services in the 

vicinity. We are located on the U.S.-Mexico border and travel over 400 miles (8 hours round trip) to a 

site in central Texas (Poth, Texas) to deliver our animals to the nearest slaughterhouse site. Due to a lack 

of other facilities, our animals are queued for processing at a later date. We then make an additional trip 

(another 8 hours of travel) to pick up our products.

This lack of access burdens small farmers and ranchers in South Texas, a region of 25 counties south of 

San Antonio. One large processer operates in Corpus Christi; however, it will only accept large volume 

animal processing. Our partners—small ranchers, farmers with a mix of agricultural products and 

animals, and small businesses that raise their own animals for harvesting—are left with one site option 

and an inequity that other livestock producers in Texas do not face. The situation creates a substantial 

disincentive to grow our production of quality animals such as grass-fed cattle for healthier choices for 

consumers and businesses that seek locally sourced meats.

We expect that solutions identified in the study may call for significant funding. A feasibility study will 

ensure that future public and/or private investments will be sound and motivate our fellow producers to 

continue supplying proteins for the food chain.

Virginia

Recipient: Local Food Hub, Charlottesville, VA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,666

Match Amount: $94,233

Total Project Amount: $343,899

Resilience and Opportunity Through Partnership: Eastern Food Hub Collaborative 

The Eastern Food Hub Collaborative (EFC) is a group of 15 food hubs and regional networks focused on 

increasing transactions among its members. This collaborative seeks to solve problems of supply and 
seasonality of local food, increase efficiency and market opportunities, and promote transparency, all in 

the interest of supporting small farmers and local economies in the Eastern United States (from 

Southern Maine to South Carolina). Working together, hubs plan for and procure from other hubs 

specialty crops that are not yet or no longer in season in their own region. They take advantage of 

existing hub infrastructure such as centrally located warehouses and coordinate logistics to maximize 

efficiency, ensuring that trucks do not travel without product. They support each other in marketing, 

and they source food from one another to help with hunger alleviation and food access programs in 

their respective regions. This planning grant will help build the systems needed to support this network. 

Its goals are to a) understand gaps in regional food systems in the EFC footprint, b) accurately measure 

the progress made by food hubs over time, improve efficiency, and address weaknesses in data 

collection and in the supply chain, c) better coordinate supply and demand needs throughout the 

network, increase the number of transactions, and ensure that the network has resources needed to 

operate effectively, and d) increase food system resilience and mitigate future crises by having a system 

to track and quickly deploy local food resources.

Recipient: Virginia Foodshed Capital, Charlottesville, VA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $47,000

Total Project Amount: $297,000

Building Capacity and Collaboration to Develop a Regenerative Meat Value Chain in the MidAtlantic 

Regenerative grass-fed farming sequesters carbon, builds soil health, and provides a marketing

opportunity for economic development, but is limited by processing capacity. Decentralizing meat

processing strengthens resilience to food shortages as occurred with the Covid-19 pandemic. For viable

investment in small-scale processing, animal production for local slaughter must increase, which means

building capacity of farmers and growing the market for local grass-fed meat. The processing constraint

is multi-faceted and requires a systemic solution along the value chain addressing supply and demand

factors and access to capital focused on investment to increase small-volume processing serving the

regional market, training meat cutters, capacity building in regenerative grass-fed farming, and

marketing programs.

This planning grant solidifies a partnership that will develop a regional mid-tier grass-fed meat value

chain in the implementation phase by establishing a regenerative meat certification and producer

network; transitioning small/family farms to regenerative practices; facilitating investment in processing

capacity; and linking to distribution and processing. This project builds on existing cooperation between

partners, federal investment implemented by partners in a farmer capacity building network and 

grassfed marketing campaign, and existing market research and feasibility studies. Virginia’s central 

location anchors the Mid-Atlantic grass-fed meat value chain. An established multi-use food enterprise

center/value-added processor and a food hub distributor provide market access for increased meat

production, as supply-side (production and slaughter) constraints are addressed.
Wisconsin

Recipient: Cooperative Development Services, Inc., Madison, WI

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $120,000

Match Amount: $30,000

Total Project Amount: $150,000

A Cooperative Local Foods System for Chicago 

The natural foods co-op sector is the nation’s farmer-friendliest retail sector, representing a value chain 

of products and a values chain of support for local economy, environment, and sustainability. Such a 

sector is rapidly emerging in the greater Chicago food shed. The intent of this project is to convene a 

systemic conversation among consumers, distributors, and producers to study, develop and implement 

a shared vision leveraging cooperation to simultaneously meet consumer preferences via economically 

competitive consumer-owned retail stores while creating a projected new producer marketing 

opportunity valued at $3-4 million in farmgate income annually. Cooperative Development Services, 

supported by three other nonprofit business development organizations, will convene 15-20 new and 

existing grocery co-ops, philanthropic partners, at least one farmer-friendly cooperative distributor, and 

an association of specialty crop producers. The Applicant will be responsible for grant management, 

with support from an Advisory Committee of business development professionals and a project 

manager. All participating organizations will convene quarterly to create shared understanding and 

vision for a cooperative local foods production, distribution and marketing system serving the region. 

The work plan will be implemented in part through contracts for specific research/study activities; 

producer business expansion and capitalization support; and outreach presentations to extend the value 

of the project. Key outcomes include 1) Creation of shared vision and plan; 2) Feasibility assessment for 

a cooperative warehouse distribution location serving the project area; 3) Engagement with producers 

interested in serving this market, with support for business planning and capitalization by those 

producers; 4) Efficient project administration.

Recipient: FairShare CSA Coalition, Madison, WI

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $873,721

Match Amount: $219,231

Total Project Amount: $1,092,952

Grower to Grower: Building a participatory vegetable farmer network across the Midwest 

As demand for organic produce remains strong and consumer interest in CSA and other direct markets 

continues to rise, farmers—especially those who have been historically underserved—need support in 

key areas in order to more fully participate in these markets, fortify their businesses, and build 

resiliency. However, many Midwestern producers are spread out geographically and often lack access to 

the community and critical support services they require locally. The Midwest Vegetable Grower 

Support Network aims to address these needs. A partnership that consists of TA and farmer partners 

and focused on supporting organic production practices, this Network will operate as a training and
community-building hub supporting diversified vegetable growers in 8 Midwestern states: WI, MN, IA, 

MO, IL, MI, OH, and IN. By leveraging partners’ unique strengths, the Network will deliver language 

accessible training and education in priority areas, including technical assistance, business planning and 

marketing support for CSA and other direct markets, and assistance with navigating certification and 

endorsement processes—all while creating a peer-to-peer community that growers want and value.