Transportation and Marketing

RegionalFoodSystemPartnerships Program

Fiscal Year 2022 Description of Funded Projects

Farm to Institution Project Type

Farm to Institution broadly refers to connecting local or regional producers, including farmers and 

ranchers, processors, and intermediaries selling local and regional foods to establishments where 

people routinely eat meals outside of home, such as schools and early childcare centers, colleges and 

universities, hospitals, corporate cafeterias, and government agencies and to vendors that sell to these 

establishments.

This document identifies FY 22 Farm to Institution Project Type funded projects. This document may not 

be inclusive of all FY22 awarded projects that carried out Farm to Institution activities as part of their 

project. Click on a state abbreviation in the chart below to jump to Farm to Institution projects in the 

respective state.

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.

State Recipient Project Name

CA Siskiyou County 

Economic Development 

Council

Connecting Siskiyou’s Small Farms and Institutions

CO Nourish Colorado Collaborative Models and Standardizing Metrics for Local Purchasing 

among Rural Institutions Project (CMSM Project)

IA Practical Farmers of 

Iowa

Strengthening & Expanding Iowa’s Food Hubs to Develop & Retain 

New Institutional Markets

KY Kentucky Horticulture 

Council

Grow Up! Expanding Kentucky's regional produce market 

opportunities

MA Third Sector New 

England, Inc.

Rooted in Community: A localized approach to growing the farm to 

institution movement in New England

MI Groundwork Center for 

Resilient Communities 

Inc

Resilient Relationships, Resilient Supply

OH Cuyahoga County Board 

of Health

Feed Our Future: Planning, Partnerships and Projects to Increase 

Local Food Spending

VA Health Care Without 

Harm

Oregon Farm to Institution Collaborative (OFIC)
California

Recipient: Siskiyou County Economic Development Council, Yreka, CA

District: CA-001

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $353,442

Match Amount: $118,548

Total Project Amount: $471,990

Connecting Siskiyou’s Small Farms and Institutions 

The agricultural economic sectorin Siskiyou County is facing a dire crisis due to persistent drought, yearover-year wildfires, and environmental pressures faced by small farms. This, paired with major market 

shifts, is culminating in the urgent decision for smallfarms across Siskiyou to innovate or exit. Siskiyou 

Economic Development Council (SEDC) is pairing with key partners throughout Siskiyou and the greater 

region to launch an initiative to expand market opportunities for Siskiyou producers. These efforts will 

create opportunities for farms to diversify and create business resiliency in the face of catastrophe.

Connecting Siskiyou’s Small Farms and Institutions will establish a critical network of local farms and 

regional institutionalfood buyers throughout Siskiyou County and its bordering communities. Through 

one-on-one technical assistance, SEDC will work to develop business plans and strategies that will 

connect key stakeholders and identify gaps in the necessary infrastructure to cultivate a thriving farmto-institution economy.

This project will provide technical assistance to producers to develop capacity, skill, and scale to address 

the institutionalmarkets and will cultivate a strong foundation for ongoing connections betweenbuyers 

and small farms. This program will build upon the SEDC's work in the agriculture sector and community 

food system and will leverage existing relationships with agricultural producers, support organizations, 

and expert business consultants.

This programwill strengthen the institutional local food system, identify gaps in infrastructure and 

supply chain partners, and connect local small farms to viable new markets to create long-term 

sustainability for one of Siskiyou's most important economic sectors.
Colorado

Recipient:Nourish Colorado, Denver, CO

District: CO-001

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $ 998,758 

Match Amount: $ 250,000

Total Project Amount: $1,248,758

Collaborative Models and Standardizing Metrics for Local Purchasing among Rural Institutions 

Project (CMSM Project) 

The CMSM project aims to infuse more resources and cooperation among institutions, farmers, and 

food hubs so they can build their capacity and networks. The goal of the project is to develop baseline 

local procurement data and metrics and create and test a model for collaborative purchasing in 

southeasternColorado. This will allow us to strengthen partnerships in the region, provide more training 

and technical assistance support, agricultural producer support, evaluation support, and build the 

overall capacity of the programto promote farmto institution programs in southeast Colorado and build 

a model that can be replicated in other regions of Colorado.

The partnershipwill include Nourish Colorado, which will manage the overall project, the Colorado 

Departments of Education (CDE), Public Health& Environment (CDPHE), andHuman Services (CDHS), as 

the providers of publicly funded mealprogramslike K12 school lunches, early childhood education (ECE) 

meals, and Older Adult (OA) Meal Programs to assist us with developing relationships with institutional 

partners. We are partnering with Ogallala Commons to assist with strengthening partnerships with 

farmers and producers in southeastern Colorado, as well as Colorado State University (CSU) Food 

Systems Institute for Engagement to assist with engagement and evaluation. Each partner will have a 

role in eachfocus area. Additionally, the project will include one to two convenings of all partners every 

year of the project to discuss initial goals, data collection, and next steps.

Iowa

Recipient: Practical Farmers ofIowa, Ames, IA

District: IA-004

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $861,356

Match Amount: $227,080

Total Project Amount: $1,088,436

Strengthening & Expanding Iowa’s Food Hubs to Develop & Retain New Institutional Markets 

This project will preserve and significantly scale up the institutional markets that food hubs have 

developed in Iowa. This project will expand food hub capacity to capture more institutional sales, 

onboard new farmers, andgrow sales territory to equitably serve more of the state. The work will also 

leverage upcoming, short-term institutional purchasing incentives to convert new institutions to 

permanent local food customers, thereby transforming the scale of farm-to-institution in Iowa. A 

centralized food hub, FarmTable Procurement & Delivery, provides aggregation, storage and delivery 
services across Iowa’s food hub network, and in turn to farmers and markets across Iowa, and the 

partnershipshares a commitment to transitioning the FarmTable food hub toa non-profit and ensuring 

its long-term sustainability.

As a support partner with a strong state-wide farmer network, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) will 

provide key outreach and education for farmers to learn about food hubs and become food hub 

vendors. PFI will also administer and evaluate this project. Iowa Valley RC&D will facilitate continued 

spaces for food hubs to collaborate with each other, while key experts at Kitchen Table Consultants will 

optimize food hub KPIs and provide business management coaching. Food Hub partners will maximize 

their added capacitymade possible by this project, along with technical assistance, to addmore farmer 

vendors, institutional customers, andterritory to their individual businesses andexpand the footprint of 

farm-to-institution in Iowa.

Kentucky

Recipient: Kentucky Horticulture Council, Inc, Lexington, KY

District: KY-006

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $689,908

Match Amount: $225,224

Total Project Amount: $915,132

Grow Up! Expanding Kentucky's regional produce market opportunities 

Grow Up! Expanding Kentucky’s regional produce market opportunities is an integrated systems 

approach that will expand Kentucky’s regional food system impact by providing technical assistance 

focused on production, processing, distribution, and consumption of produce crops. The project will 

leverage a public-private partner network to increase production and market literacy while reducing 

known production and market barriers to support farms, businesses, and entrepreneurs that grow, 

store, process, market, anddistribute produce locally and regionally. With focus and intentionality, the 

multi-disciplinary project team will collectively address the needs of at least 2,500 producers, 10 

distribution partners, 43 institutional buyers, and 75,000 consumers of food products, with resulting 

systembenefitsincluding increasedopportunities across market channels, economic improvement, job 

creation, enhanced ecosystem services, and expanded access to healthy food.
Massachusetts

Recipient: Third Sector New England, Inc., Boston, MA

District: MA-007

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $968,375

Match Amount: $369,500

Total Project Amount: $1,337,875

Rooted in Community: A localized approach to growing the farm to institution movement in New 

England 

This project invests in strengthening regional, equitable farm to institution(FTI) relationships and value 

chains in three New England Communities, which in coordination will lead to greater regional and 

values-basedfood procurement across New Englandwhile shifting institutional power dynamics around 

race. Springfield, MA; New Haven, CT; and Cumberland County, ME will form a Cohort, represented by 

three community-based organizations—Springfield Food Policy Council, Cumberland County Food 

Security Council, Cityof New Haven Food System Policy Division—who are already driving food systems 

change at the local level. Each of the community organizations willreceive subawards to carry out their 

local organizing, community engagement, and value chain coordination activities. The partnership will 

be supported by three state departments of agriculture, who will connect partners to additional 

collaborators and technical assistance. Farm to Institution New England, a regional network backbone 

organization, will provide project coordination, connect the cohort with regional partners, resources, 

and training, and share stories and strategies developed in each community with the broader network. 

We believe thatstrong, inter-wovenand community-driven foundations of FTI work lead to sustainable 

regional impact for New England producers and residents who eat at institutions.

Michigan

Recipient: Groundwork Centerfor Resilient Communities Inc, Traverse City, MI

District: MI-001

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $891,100

Match Amount: $247,360

Total Project Amount: $1,138,460

Resilient Relationships, Resilient Supply 

Resilient Relationships, Resilient Supply builds upon established partnerships to strengthen the food 

system in lower Michigan’s Western Lakeshore Region to increase sales and consumption of locally 

grown foods from small and mid-sized producers to schools, early childcare, and education (ECE) centers 

and emergency food providers The project increases community nutrition security by increasing access 

to healthy, local food for low-income children, families, and citizens. We will support over 34 

stakeholder partners in filling gaps they have identified in infrastructure and supply chains to help 

markets grow. We will leverage Michigan’s innovative state program, 10 Cents a Meal for Michigan’s 

Kids & Farms, currently funded at $4.5 million, increasing local food purchasing power for schools, ECE 
centers, and eligible organizations feeding children via USDA child nutrition programs. Partners will 

leverage proven regional farm to food pantry initiatives that have grown in response to COVID-19. Lead 

partners—Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, the principal of a food processing association, 

a supply chain logistics expert, and a local foods marketing enterprise with vast farmer connections—

will convene 5 Peer Learning Networks (PLNs) and provide farm to institution support and technical 

assistance to create stronger collaborations among 5 key stakeholder groups: producers, distributors, 

processors/aggregators,schools/Early Care and Education (ECE) centers, and emergency food providers 

(EFP). The PLNs will provide the chance to network, identify needs, find opportunities and solutions, and 

build relationships. PLN members will attend Learning Journeys to PLN member sites to share best 

practices. Theywill have scholarships available to 5 key Michigan-based food systems conferences to 

build knowledge and gain professional development.

Through technical assistance and coordinated efforts, we aim to increase capacity, develop new market 

opportunities for producers to expand local and regional food business enterprises, and promote food 

safety practices to ensure a safe and productive local and regional food system. The 501,620 expected 

beneficiaries of this project include students in schools and ECE centers participating in10 Cents a Meal, 

families and low-income individuals utilizing EFPs, small and mid-size farmers, processors, aggregators, 

distributors, andbusinesses along the value-added supply chain across the 16-county project region. We 

expect that our efforts in bringing together and engaging stakeholders of the food supply chain with 

lead to increased resilience and efficacy of work within the regional food system of Michigan’s Western 

Lakeshore region.

Ohio

Recipient: Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Parma, OH

District: OH-016

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $700,000

Match Amount: $210,265

Total Project Amount: $910,265

Feed Our Future: Planning, Partnerships and Projects to Increase Local Food Spending 

This project leverages local and regional partnerships to advance the collaborations necessary to build a 

regionally innovative and responsive farm to school (F2S) initiative that serves school-aged children 

across Northern Ohio. The Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH)serves as the backbone 

organizationfor Feed Our Future (FOF): Local Foods for Growing Minds, convening individuals and 

stakeholders throughout Ohio to advance the policy, environmental, and systems changes needed to 

drive systemic change and build a more resilient food system. The project goals are to strengthen the 

mid-tier value chain and increase local and regional food procurement by K-12 school districts. The key 

objectives of this partnership are to 1) strengthen the mid-tier value chain to effectively serve K-12 

school systems by increasing the number of producers in the supply chain; 2) increase localfood 

purchasing by K-12 school systems through the execution of a farm to school bid; 3) increase the 

knowledge and skills of school meal program staffto menu, serve, and teachabout local foods through 

the creation of two new curriculums; and 4) expand organizational capacity to support regional local 

food system efforts, planning, partnership, and advocacy by hiring an equity consultant, facilitating 
ongoing meetings of the Feed Our Future Leadership Council, and engaging in new and enhancing 

existing partnerships to generate a regional farm to school strategic plan.

Virginia

Recipient: HealthCare Without Harm, Reston, VA (Project is in Oregon)

District: VA-011

Project Type: Farm to Institution 

Award Amount: $999,524

Match Amount: $412,620

Total Project Amount: $1,412,144

Oregon Farm to Institution Collaborative (OFIC) 

For more than a decade, the Farm to Institution (F2I) movement in Oregon has made significant strides 

in engaging and coordinating efforts of institutional purchasers, government agencies, nonprofit 

organizations, and supply chain producers and processors. While successes have helped create lasting 

change in many institutions, the impact of these resources and partnerships has largely been focused on 

the Portland Metro Region. While almost 100,000 meals per day are served in institutions in the 

Portland area, there are more than twice as many meals served in institutions throughout the State.

The purpose of this project is toleverage existing proofs of concept in farm to institution (F2I) and take 

them to scale at a state level. F2I will be catalyzed in different regions and rural areas of Oregon by 

establishing the Oregon Farm to Institution Collaborative (OFIC).

This project will benefit Oregon producers and processors through improved value chain coordination 

and connections to new institutionalmarkets, thus providing institutions with more options and 

streamlined processes to purchase locally and meet values-based purchasing goals. Additionally, the 

project will benefit communities served by institutionsthroughout Oregon, like students, patients, and 

state employees, who will have improved access to healthy, locally grown, and produced food.