Transportation and Marketing

Regional Food System Partnerships Program

Fiscal Year 2020 Description of Funded Projects

Number of Grants Awarded: 23

Amount of Funds Awarded: $9,331,027

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: Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Anchorage, AK

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $130,786

Total Project Amount: $380,786

Building and Strengthening Local and Regional Food Systems in the Aleutian Pribilof Islands 

Region 

The overarching goals of this project are to better understand local food systems in the Aleutian Pribilof 

Islands Region and to begin planning and designing a regional food system through local and regional 

partnerships. This will be accomplished through local discussions and assessments as well as through a 

regional gathering of stakeholders. 

The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) will facilitate this effort in collaboration with Tribal 

partners in the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Region, together with a Project Team including: Alaska Village 

Initiatives, University of Alaska Anchorage Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies, Aleutian Pribilof 

Island Community Development Association, and Aleut International Association. 

Year One will focus on developing and/or adapting food system assessment tools in a collaborative 

effort between Tribal partners and the Project Team. The Project Team will travel out to participating 

communities to conduct food assessments and facilitate community dialogue around food systems to: 

develop and build community connections (public and private), share opportunities and challenges, and 

define the food system scope and structure. This will be accomplished using a community-based 

participatory framework and community meetings, interviews, surveys, and other assessment tools. 

Year Two will focus on completing community visits and analyzing local food system assessment results 

and producing and disseminating assessment reports. In addition, APIA will convene Tribal partners and 
key stakeholders for a regional gathering to disseminate assessment findings, identify partnership 

opportunities, and identify priorities and avenues of sustainability for a regional food system.

Recipient: Alaska Food Policy Council, Anchorage, AK

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $106,710

Match Amount: $27,278

Total Project Amount: $133,988

Growing Connections and Building Networks for Greater Food Security 

“Alaska” is derived from the Aleut word "Aleyska," meaning "great land," and provides a variety of local 

food resources from ocean, land, and sky. Despite this, Alaska imports 95% of its food from outside the 

state, significant in terms of economic loss and food security. Food insecurity affects residents statewide 

- 14% of the state is food insecure, while 20% of all children share this designation. The state’s vastness, 

coupled with limited infrastructure and funding, have left residents with a crippled food system, vastly 

dependent on outside resources to meet nutritional needs. 

The Alaska Food Policy’s goal is to create a healthier, more secure, and resilient Alaska by improving our 

food system through advocacy, education, and connection. Our project aims to connect localized food 

system organizations to create a statewide network of “regional nodes.” Through direct facilitation, 

each node will be guided through a series of planning discussions, including node specific asset mapping 

to identify unique capacities for local food systems, while revealing barriers and system deficiencies.

Through regular statewide connection, communication and collaboration regional nodes will collectively 

identify linkages and partnerships which can be leveraged to create a 10-year statewide food security 

action plan.

All food systems affect the environmental, social, and economic well-being of communities. By 

acknowledging the range of place-specific community needs, limits, and priorities of a variety of 

communities, from rural to urban, we aim to create an action plan for a statewide food system that is 

rooted in resilience, equity, representation, and sustainability.

California

Recipient: Green Technical Education and Employment, Sacramento, CA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,892

Match Amount: $72,220

Total Project Amount: $322,112

Sacramento Food System Assessment and Partnership Project 

Sacramento Food System Assessment and Partnership Project is in the early stages of planning for the 

development of its local food system. With only a mere 2% of food that is consumed in the region being 

produced locally, major local food system infrastructure gaps persist, and along with it, opportunity gaps 
for many small, limited resources producers and consumers in the food system. To address these gaps, 

this partnership has the following goals: 

• To strengthen partnership capacity and authentic community collaborations, for a more resilient 

local food system with opportunities for all, from producer to consumer, 

• To advance shared stakeholder decision making and data-informed planning processes for a 

more equitable food system in Sacramento County. 

The project applicant and administrator, Green Technical Education and Employment (GTE) will 

coordinate with the lead project manager, Sacramento Food Policy Council (SFPC). In collaboration with 

11 eligible partners/entities, including Sacramento County Public Health Department, the project will 

conduct a comprehensive, countywide, food system assessment to increase the understanding of the 

barriers and opportunities in the local food system. 

We also seek to lay the groundwork for a future countywide food action plan. The partnership will host 

upwards of 40 stakeholder and community engagement opportunities focused on building sustained 

working relationships and listening to stakeholder needs. Results will be shared broadly with 

community, food sector stakeholders, and local governments via in person and web meetings and 

reports. Success will be determined by an inclusive partnership and an in-depth food system 

assessment.

Recipient: Pie Ranch, Pescadero, CA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,494

Match Amount: $95,241

Total Project Amount: $344,735

Community-Driven Visioning and Planning for a Just and Sustainable Bay Area Regional Food 

System 

Food producers, local governments, food access nonprofits and other food system organizations in the 

San Francisco Bay Area regularly acknowledge that there is a lack of financial, infrastructural and other 

resources to realize a just and sustainable food system across the region. Existing academic analyses 

highlight the need for regional funding mechanisms, and pilot projects on sub-regional scales have 

experimented with innovative public funding approaches. Yet, our regional food system remains highly 

inequitable, with high food insecurity, supply chain fractures and a lack of sufficient resources for 

farmland protection and environmental conservation. 

COVID-19 has also revealed that many parts and stakeholders of our food system are fragmented, 

especially across urban and rural divides. Our proposed project will build on previous sub-regional 

efforts to plan and design an approach for a more integrated, equitable and resilient regional food 

system. Project partners include public, private, and nonprofit organizations that span urban/rural and 

multi-sector divides. We will use an inclusive and collaborative planning process to form a diverse multistakeholder coalition for a Bay Area food system, including tribal communities and communities of 

color. 
In the first year, we will engage with food system enterprises and community stakeholders to merge 

academic analyses with tacit knowledge and insight to envision how a just and sustainable food system 

can be achieved. In the second year, the growing partnership will work to create an action plan for the 

coalition that will bring about a transformational public funding mechanism for this integrated and 

resilient regional food system.

Colorado

Recipient: First Nations Development Institute, Longmont, CO

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion (Project region is on North/South Dakota border)

Award Amount: $301,544

Match Amount: $77,068

Total Project Amount: $378,612

Building Sioux Community Food Systems 

First Nations Development Institute, a national, Native American nonprofit organization, will work with 

Spirit Lake Nation and Standing Rock Tribe, federally recognized Indian tribes in North/South Dakota. 

Collectively, these entities will collaborate to build the organizational and programmatic capacity of 

Spirit Lake and Standing Rock, enhancing their abilities to reclaim control of their local food systems 

through building partnerships and community relationships.

Spirit Lake and Standing Rock will work with Native food producers, individual and institutional food 

consumers, and food market outlets to: increase local production of fresh, traditional, and value-added 

foods; create and meet the demand for locally-produced affordable, healthy, fresh, and traditional 

foods; and capture economic opportunities for social enterprise development and recirculation of food 

dollars in the community. 

These models will be documented and publicized in a final, nationally disseminated report and 

workshop to promote their adaptation in other Native communities interested in food sovereignty.

This project is significant because it serves historically underserved Native communities whose food 

systems have been disrupted by colonization yet have significant agricultural assets to leverage.

Recipient: Western Colorado Food and Agriculture Council, Montrose, CO

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $108,000

Match Amount: $27,000

Total Project Amount: $135,000

Western Slope Food System Partnership 

Demand for local food has grown throughout the Western Slope and the eastern “Front Range” of 

Colorado. However, farmers, food hubs and distributors servicing our region lack the logistics capacity to 

aggregate and scale up their operations to sell to institutional and retail outlets. Coordination of 

relationships across the regional food supply chain (RFSC) is needed to cultivate mutually beneficial

partnerships that grow sales into these channels.
This project will connect producers, distributors, mid-tier value chain businesses, and buyers to share 

accurate, reliable, and timely data. We will build the digital logistics capacity and efficiency of the RFSC 

to coordinate marketing and crop production with demand planning and inventory management, 

improve transportation coordination and per-unit hauling efficiency, and design optimum processing 

and warehousing solutions.

The project will create a collaborative regional food system partnership with shared operational values 

and social mission goals. In year one it will establish an agreement to empower small and mid-scale local 

food producers to share their production data and engage in omni-channel marketing. In year two the 

partnership will use data generated in year one to develop baseline metrics and strategic market, midtier value chain, and infrastructure expansion plans. Success will be measured in stakeholder data 

sharing engagement, supply chain operational cost reductions, supply chain efficiency improvements, 

growth of market channels to producers, and year two investment commitments.

Georgia

Recipient: Food Well Alliance Inc., Atlanta, GA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $228,586

Total Project Amount: $478,586

East Point City Agriculture Planning Implementation 

In 2019, Food Well Alliance (FWA), in partnership with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), 

embarked on a collaborative project to build capacity for, and engage local governments in, city urban 

agriculture planning. While ARC has been an expert regional planner for decades, the intergovernmental 

agency had yet to help cities plan for food or urban agriculture. At this time, FWA and ARC partnered 

with the City of East Point to launch its first ever planning process with a goal of illustrating how cities 

can prioritize urban agriculture in metro Atlanta. The planning phase, led by FWA, included a 

comprehensive community engagement process ensuring community strengths and local grower 

priorities were included. 

Following this phase, ARC completed a six-month planning process guided by a Steering Committee 

composed of a diverse set of community-selected and city-appointed delegates who represent a variety 

of entities from the local food system. In May 2020, the draft urban agriculture plan was presented to 

stakeholders; the partners are now ready to begin implementation. 

The goal of this project is to strengthen East Point’s local food system by implementing 

recommendations from the ARC plan. Additionally, by demonstrating success and evaluating activities 

during the grant period, the partnership seeks to expand this work to 52 cities in the five-counties in our 

service area - Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Fulton. The goals will be achieved by dedicating 

resources to improve access and awareness of local food, boost the role of government, and increase 

funds to support further implementation work.
Hawaii

Recipient: Hawaii Public Health Institute, Honolulu, HI

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $249,466

Match Amount: $62,567

Total Project Amount: $312,033

Transforming Hawaiʻi Food Systems Together 

The 'Ike 'Ai Consortium on Sustainable Food Systems (‘Ike ‘Ai) is a cross-sector, multi-institutional 

planning, policy, applied research, education, and community engagement initiative designed to 

collaboratively advance food security, public health, climate resilience and indigenous values. The name 

‘Ike ‘Ai refers to the Hawaiian words for “knowledge” and “food,” respectively. ‘Ike ‘Ai is a nexus for 

community, government, educational institutions and private entities who work to integrate sustainable 

food production, processing, distribution, access, consumption and waste management.

Through the convening of key regional food system actors, this project will strengthen Hawai‘i’s food 

system by developing a State Food Policy Framework and Strategy, informed by data products, to 

prioritize policies and actions required to increase access and consumption of locally produced food. 

Fundamentally, new investment opportunities and expanded workforce pathways will shape the path to 

food system sustainability, resilience and equity.

Spotlighting indigenous food producers, local food distributors, university researchers, educators, state 

officials and recent efforts by community leaders to restore disrupted market chains, the unfolding 

COVID-19 pandemic has magnified our inability to deliver locally sourced food in times of disaster. As a 

driver of economic recovery and resilience building, ‘Ike ‘Ai will be a catalytic vehicle to help restore 

Hawai‘i’s vibrant community-based food systems.

Illinois

Recipient: Inner City Muslim Action Network, Chicago, IL

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $525,000

Match Amount: $166,750

Total Project Amount: $691,750

Go Green on Racine: Local Food System Integration 

The Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), in partnership with the UIC Nutrition, Obesity, and 

Health Equity Research Group (UIC), seeks funds to build and expand the local and regional food 

systems work on Chicago’s south and west sides. The project, Go Green on Racine: Local Food System 

Integration, builds on an initiative that has been informed and driven by the partners, as well as a local 

stakeholder committee comprised of neighborhood leaders, nutrition experts, community developers, 

food retailers, educators, and farmers. 
This partnership will deepen and expand the work by integrating regional rural and urban farmers who 

have been disenfranchised and negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, into the partnership and 

connecting them to local food retailers through a food distribution channel to be created and facilitated 

by the stakeholders, and informed by their experiences.

The intended goals of the project are to: 1) develop a producer to consumer and producer to retailer

distribution network; 2) increase consumption of fresh produce; and 3) document and evaluate the 

process of the new initiative. The goals will be accomplished through regular meetings, project planning 

and coordination, and community education between the project partnership and the broader 

stakeholder committee.

Kentucky

Recipient: Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Elizabethtown, KY

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $937,409

Match Amount: $244,898

Total Project Amount: $1,182,307

Kentucky Food System Collaboration 

Kentucky is fortunate to have multiple nonprofit organizations, institutes of higher education, 

government agencies, and lenders engaged in cultivating a stronger regional food system for the state. 

These entities have long collaborated in ways that benefit the regional food economy. However, many 

of these entities struggle to devote concentrated attention and effort toward collaborations that could 

improve the system for producers and consumers alike simply because the work of directly assisting 

agricultural producers and businesses in the food value chain is so all-encompassing. 

Through a Regional Food System Partnership grant from USDA, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and 

Rural Development (KCARD) proposes to bring together these partners to collaborate on new initiatives 

with the ultimate objective of improving the sustainability and resilience of the regional food value chain 

in Kentucky. Partners include the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the University of Kentucky, 

Kentucky Beef Network, Kentucky Dairy Development Council, and many others. 

By bringing these partners together, cultivating their work in this space, providing grant facilitation 

support for their efforts and the efforts of their producers, and providing coordinated feedback to all 

partners, this project will result in new activities that will increase Kentucky farmer net income, improve 

access to local product in Kentucky, and ultimately increase the resiliency of the Kentucky food system. 

At no time has this been more critical than now, when sales of local food have increased dramatically 

given the interest consumers have in shortening the supply chain due to COVID-19.
Michigan

Recipient: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $746,480

Match Amount: $189,560

Total Project Amount: $936,040

Strengthening Public and Private Partnerships for a More Resilient and Just Food System in Rural 

& Urban Communities Across Michigan 

Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS) advances regionally rooted food 

systems through applied research, education, and outreach uniting the knowledge and experience of 

diverse stakeholders. Partnerships are the core of CRFS’ work. Since 2009, the Michigan Good Food 

Charter has been building strong collaboration infrastructure to support local and regional food systems. 

A recent partnership with the MSU Product Center spurred innovation to support food and farm 

entrepreneurs and link enterprises to statewide resources. Covid-19 has highlighted the essential nature 

of resilient, and equitable local food supply chains. In this project, we will build upon our existing 

partnerships and past successes, applying key lessons from COVID-19 to improve coordination, 

resiliency, and racial equity in targeted local food systems across Michigan.

We have chosen low-resource, rural and urban, communities within SW Michigan and the Upper 

Peninsula as our food system partnership laboratories for this project. By leveraging existing 

partnerships and an ecosystem of food system business and policy networks, we will expand our 

collaborative efforts to connect food and farm enterprises, food hubs, incubator kitchens, and 

institutional and retail markets. The partnerships will carry forward the work of 21 public and private 

organizations with over 17 years' experience in developing local and regional food systems. Together we 

will further integrate local food system expertise to address the needs of low-resource partners, 

respond to COVID-19, and support economic growth to build a stronger, more resilient, and just local 

economies.

New Mexico

Recipient: New Mexico Farmers' Marketing Association, Santa Fe, NM

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $999,042

Match Amount: $260,461

Total Project Amount: $1,259,503

Scaling Up New Mexico’s Value Chain Coordination Network 

“Scaling Up New Mexico’s Value Chain Coordination (NM-VCC) Network” will strengthen successful 

public and private collaborations of New Mexico’s Value Chain Coordination Entities (VCCEs) in order to 

develop the long-term economic viability of the state’s agriculture producers, while providing increased 

consumer access to healthy, local food, especially for lower-income populations. Building upon excellent 

current statewide VCCE partnerships that span a breadth of entity types, technical skills, and 
specializations, the project will strengthen producer resilience and catalyze New Mexico’s local food 

economies by improving shared resources and reducing administrative and technical barriers for 

participating Value Chain Coordination Professionals (VCCPs). 

Occasionally, the food hubs/Transactional Partners (TPs), and the relational specialists/Support Partners 

(SPs) will engage in a dual track of complementary activities that allow for targeted strategies to meet 

each group’s unique needs. By project’s end, the NM-VCC Network will have mutually supportive, 

shared resources including databases/dashboards for monitoring and reporting on local produce 

purchase data, Quality Management Systems for institutional and other wholesale procurement, and 

producer training resources for wholesale production and marketing. 

Additional project outcomes will include stakeholder meetings to foster new institutional and buyer 

relationships, reliable reporting metrics for VCCE work, and shared advocacy efforts to support 

legislation that promotes market development and/or reduces regulatory barriers. The project will use a 

collective impact model with backbone leadership, consultant technical assistance, and outside 

evaluation support so that partners can create a common agenda, develop shared measurement 

systems, decide upon mutually reinforcing activities, and participate in continuous communication to 

achieve project objectives.

New York

Recipient: Syracuse Grows, Inc., Syracuse, NY

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $170,328

Match Amount: $72,083

Total Project Amount: $242,411

Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance: Collaborating to build a more resilient food system in 

Upstate New York 

Established in 2019, the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance (SOFSA) is a newly formed

independent food council in Upstate New York serving the city of Syracuse and surrounding Onondaga 

County. The overarching goal of the SOFSA partnership is to serve as both a network of food system 

stakeholders as well as a catalyst for collaboration among diverse partners. SOFSA engages across 

sectors to advance projects, build linkages, and foster relationships that enhance the livelihoods of all 

partners. The partnership aims to ensure the long-term viability and vitality of the region’s agricultural 

sector while simultaneously increasing access to healthy food and reducing the prevalence of food 

insecurity within the county. Together, these activities will ensure equitable access to a healthy and 

resilient food system for the region.

The proposed planning project builds on a yearlong visioning process recently completed by the council 

and seeks to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the collaboration. As the SOFSA partnership enters its 

next phase of development, the group will collaboratively design its operational structures, invest in 

expanding its recruitment and engagement efforts, deepen its governmental partnerships, and fundraise 

to support joint projects as well as to sustain the partnership as a whole. 
Recipient: Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York Inc., Syracuse, NY

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $140,935

Match Amount: $35,234

Total Project Amount: $176,169

Feasibility Study to Assess the Capacity for Growing New York’s Mid-tier Value Chain 

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY)’s Feasibility Study to Assess the 

Capacity for Growing New York’s Mid-tier Value Chain will provide insight into improved production and 

processing infrastructure for New York State agricultural products. This collaboration brings together 

strategic partners across the northeast agricultural industry to assess key areas of investment to 

improve aggregation, processing, and distribution, enhancing access to markets for sustainable and 

organic small and mid-size producers. Public, private, and nonprofit organizations from across our region 

will identify areas of opportunity and growth in vegetable, dairy, and grain production. NOFA-NY will 

partner with Amy’s Kitchen, Northeast Grainshed, the Center for Agricultural Development & 

Entrepreneurship, Regional Access, Food Bank of Central New York, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers 

Alliance, GrowNYC, and Syracuse University. 

This broad collective will work to improve marketing opportunities across the value chain, prioritize 

strategic investments, and create a network to support producers, aggregators, processors, and 

distributors as they work collaboratively to grow and source food from New York State and the 

surrounding region, working towards the broader goal of a more equitable and sustainable food system. 

Study results will be distributed through presentations across the region, web-based learning, and print 

publications, reaching over 12,000 producers, processors, distributors, and industry professionals with 

results focused on opportunities to propel New York State agriculture forward.

Ohio

Recipient: Green Umbrella, Cincinnati, OH

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $609,951

Match Amount: $174,758

Total Project Amount: $784,709

GCRFPC Partnerships for a Healthy Regional Food System 

GCRFPC Partnerships to Build a Healthy Regional Food System leverages local, state and national 

partnerships to advance collaboration on key projects for building a regional food system that serves ALL

residents of greater Cincinnati. The Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council (GCRFPC) convenes

stakeholders from across ten counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana to advocate for policy, systems,

and environment change. We work through policy advocacy, convening community forums, and

publishing research on the state of the regional food system. 

The project goals are to increase institutional and consumer purchasing of local foods. The key 

objectives and activities of this partnership are to: 
• Increase institutional local food purchasing by advocating for more institutions to adopt formal 

local food purchasing policies and for policy change to create financial flexibility for schools to

purchase locally; 

• Increase consumer demand for local foods by implementing a comprehensive regional local 

food marketing strategy in partnership with key institutions and working with anchor

institutions and corporate partners to create employee incentives for purchasing local food; 

• Improve household access to local food by convening market managers and famers to 

implement strategies for improving the efficiency and convenience of farmers’ markets, and 

expanding neighborhood-scale distribution of local foods to corner stores in low-income 

neighborhoods; 

• Expand organizational capacity for local food systems change advocacy by facilitating ongoing 

meetings of the GCRFRPC and investing in evaluation and analysis of the impacts of our 

collective work.

Oregon

Recipient: Columbia Pacific Economic Development District, St. Helens, OR

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $450,000

Match Amount: $343,742

Total Project Amount: $793,742

Oregon North Coast Regional Food System Resiliency 

This third phase of Oregon North Coast Regional Food System work implements and expands on the 

planning and development of a multi-partner network of economic development, small agriculture and 

seafood producer development organizations, tourism food trail and farmers market organizations, 

small business development centers, local ports, and food value chain technical advisors. Over the last 

five years, since 2015, this network of strategic food system partners has worked to increase the 

capacity and market reach of our small agriculture and seafood producers.

Our work has been through a planned three phase approach to supporting our local food system. In the 

first two phases, value chain assessments, food hub feasibility studies, and other research and planning 

activities have contributed to the development of producers/harvester training opportunities, 

supported market development and education programs, and supported the need for development of 

some necessary infrastructure. This application focuses on supporting activities for “Phase III”—

Implementation and Expansion: Regional Coordination, Procurement Coordination and 

Marketing/Resource Acquisition.

The goal is to institutionalize the long-term resiliency and sustainability of the North Coast’s locallyproduced food system. To achieve true sustainability and resiliency, Phase 3 of our Oregon North Coast 

Food System development efforts plans to accomplish the following three measurable objectives:

• Increase access to locally produced food by all populations and sectors of the region

• Decrease dependency on food sources outside the North Coast region

• Improve the livelihoods of the region’s small agriculture and seafood producers
Recipient: Portland Development Commission, Portland, OR

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $74,581

Total Project Amount: $324,581

Building Capacity and Collaboration to Catalyze the Development of an Equitable Regional Food 

Economy in the Portland Metropolitan region 

This is a partnership between regional nonprofits, producers, Oregon State University, and the Oregon 

Department of Agriculture. Prosper Portland, the economic and urban development agency for the city 

of Portland, convenes the partnership, and a steering committee comprised of community-based 

organizations and food system stakeholders provides direction and oversight to guide our food system 

development work. The purpose of this partnership is to work together to achieve shared goals that 

catalyze the development of an equitable and resilient regional food economy.

The goal of this two-year project is to implement a regional food system planning process that engages a 

diverse set of stakeholders, with a focus on communities that have been historically marginalized. In 

year one, the partnership will conduct an assessment and community engagement process focused on 

barriers to entrepreneurship, community development, and living wage job creation. This process will 

identify the key drivers affecting the development of an equitable and resilient food economy in the 

Portland Metropolitan region. 

In year two, the partnership will develop a regional food system action plan that provides a framework 

for collaboration among diverse food system stakeholders, inspires philanthropic and private 

investments in inclusive food systems infrastructure, and offers specific enterprise or programmatic 

solutions for implementation. This work will be accompanied by deliberate capacity building and 

formalization of the partnership throughout the grant period in order to leverage the partnership's 

collective expertise, technical capabilities, and access to non-federal financial resources in service of 

building a stronger, more inclusive, and resilient regional food system.

Vermont

Recipient: Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, Inc., Montpelier, VT

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $250,000

Match Amount: $73,850

Total Project Amount: $323,850

Mitigating Risk to Food Security in New England: A Planning Project to Set Targets for Increased 

Regional Food Production and Develop Strategies for Distribution 

The New England State Food System Planners Partnership (The Partnership) has been in existence for 

seven years and comprises the six leading NGOs responsible for supporting development and 

implementation of their state’s food system plan. The Partnership is well-connected with key 

stakeholders in our respective states and we are highly skilled at facilitating and convening stakeholders, 

building networks of organizations, and tracking progress. 
The proposed project will leverage The Partnership’s shared history and combined Networks to make a 

significant impact in regional food system planning and development. Across the region, our experience 

with the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant weaknesses in global and national food supply 

chains. 

The goal of the proposed project is to strengthen the region's food supply and distribution systems to 

ensure the availability of adequate, affordable, socially and culturally appropriate food under a variety 

of environmental, and public health conditions. Meeting this goal will ensure food security for people at 

all income levels in times of crisis, build economically viable markets for regionally grown food, and 

contribute to urban and rural economic development. 

We will engage New England state agencies and key state/regional stakeholders in a collaborative effort 

to inventory ongoing projects, policy conversations, and best practices for conducting emergency 

feeding operations in each state in response to COVID-19. And we will seek agreement around a 

minimum set of production targets by food category that would lead to New Englanders consuming 35% 

of the food they eat from New England food producers by 2035.

Recipient: Tiny Seed Project, Inc., East Hardwick, VT

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $246,893

Match Amount: $171,309

Total Project Amount: $418,202

Raising Grain: Reviving the Northeast Grainshed 

The Northeast Grainshed Partnership consists of a diverse and growing number of key stakeholders in 

the Northeast (New England, New Jersey, and New York) regional grain system: grain growers, 

processors, producers, organizations, institutions, researchers, and the public. The Partnership operates 

as a networking hub and planning initiative, primarily to connect grain-related businesses and 

organizations. The Partnership’s vision is to revive a functional and resilient regional grain system.

The project goals are to: 

• Establish a framework for a regional grain system, leveraging the Northeast Grainshed as both a 

networking hub for partnership stakeholders and a planning initiative that connects businesses 

and consumers. 

• Unite the Northeast region under one staple crop `brand’ through a coordinated consumer 

awareness and education campaign to bring attention to the Northeast’s unique contribution to 

the local food industry and increase demand for regionally produced and processed grains.

The Partnership will meet both goals through our collective expertise, experience, and enthusiasm 

among grain growers, private industry partners, non-profits, and land grant universities. For example, 

GrowNYC, a project partner, has 50 years of experience supporting New Yorkers in accessing local food 

through their Greenmarkets network. 

Over the project period, the Partnership will develop an Action Plan with methods to achieve the 

following: increased communication and networking between farms and grain-based businesses; a 
consumer education campaign to raise the profile of regional grains; identification of stakeholder needs, 

missing or weak links in the regional grain system, and missing partners; and development of a 

framework for a Northeast regional grain system.

Virginia

Recipient: Appalachian Sustainable Development, Bristol, VA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $999,968

Match Amount: $386,265

Total Project Amount: $1,386,233

Expanding Food and Agriculture Value Chains in Central Appalachia by Creating a MultiStakeholder Cooperative 

The project, Expanding Food and Agriculture Value Chains in Central Appalachia by Creating a MultiStakeholder Cooperative, brings together 5 innovative anchor organizations and established food hubs 

who will connect with an estimated 15 additional food hubs throughout Central Appalachia to design a 

scalable and collaborative model to access mid-tier markets. 

The project goal will address the needs of underserved farmers, processors and rural communities in 

low wealth and depopulated counties in six states. Each partner brings unique expertise, shared values, 

and tested approaches to reframe a regional food system that ensure access to healthy, local food 

through equitable supply chains that create viable, rural livelihoods for producers and processors. 

Over the past five years, project partners have invested in infrastructure, staffing and distribution 

partnerships in their sub-regions. As a collective marketing and distribution network, partners are 

prepared to formalize a cooperative model to leverage scarce resources, attract new public and private 

investment, and better serve all stakeholders in all regions of Central Appalachia.

Recipient: Local Environmental Agriculture Project, Roanoke, VA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $145,515

Match Amount: $37,960

Total Project Amount: $183,475

Strong Farm and Food Future: Planning for a Collaborative Regional Economy in the Roanoke 

Valley 

The Strong Farm and Food Future planning project will explore and build capacity for a regional food 

system in the Roanoke Valley of Southwest Virginia. The project’s goal is to collectively learn about and 

address the needs of sustainable farm development, local food distribution, and equitable food access, 

and develop a comprehensive approach to create a more resilient, socially just, and economically viable 

food system in this underserved region. Together, we will use story-sharing, group facilitation, training, 

and strategic thinking to create an open environment in which our diverse partners can co-create a 

stronger regional food system. 
With Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP) as facilitator, this project will:

• Identify and communicate the community-based assets of the diverse regional food system 

partners,

• Facilitate idea sharing, community relationships, and value-chain coordination activities to build 

trust and organizational capacity of the regional food system partners, 

• Design and co-create a regional food system development and implementation plan, and 

• Develop a regional food system collaborative structure for plan implementation. 

Project partners include entities rooted in the Roanoke Valley (Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional 

Commission, City of Roanoke, Blue Ridge Land Conservancy, United Way Healthy Roanoke Valley, 

Carilion Clinic, Virginia Cooperative Extension) and entities with a multi-region focus (Virginia Tech and 

the affiliated Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, 

Eastern Food Hub Collaborative). 

Washington

Recipient: Northwest Agriculture Business Center, Mount Vernon, WA

Project Type: Implementation & Expansion

Award Amount: $994,400

Match Amount: $248,609

Total Project Amount: $1,243,009

Puget Sound Regional Food System Partnership 

The Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC) recognizes that the Puget Sound region is fertile 

ground for the development of a cohesive collaboration of existing agencies and entities with the 

common goal of developing a vibrant and sustainable food system.

NABC will serve as the project manager, leverage long-standing relationships, and work in partnership 

with multiple local, state and federal governmental agencies, nonprofits, lending institutions, 

institutions of higher learning, producer-owned cooperatives, food producers and others. This project 

starts with a baseline of service to nine established producer-owned processing, marketing, and 

distribution cooperatives and more than 200 agricultural producers that currently serve more than 300 

supermarkets, institutional food service providers, restaurants, and food banks, throughout a 10-county 

region of the Puget Sound, working to feed over 4.6 million people.

NABC proposes facilitating the formation of a qualified and capable body of collaborators to work 

together as a forward thinking and responsive agent to:

• Support the development of necessary infrastructure projects for value-added food processing 

and distribution and provide hands on technical assistance to farms and food businesses to 

support expansion and gain access to capital.

• Create a network of independent farmer-owned food hub cooperatives, which leverages 

efficiencies in marketing and production planning, business operations, logistics, financial and 

risk management, and improves profitability.

• Implement a replicable food access model in which food hubs, farmers, and food banks 

collaborate to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Recipient: Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Seattle, WA

Project Type: Planning & Design

Award Amount: $100,000

Match Amount: $25,000

Total Project Amount: $125,000

Washington WealthWorks: Improved Seafood Sector Livelihoods on the Washington Coast 

The Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (CIE) is partnering with Rural Development Initiatives (RDI) 

and two Washington State agencies (Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources) to conduct a grassroots, 

system wide value chain assessment of the Washington coast seafood sector. The purpose of this work 

is to stimulate community-led partnerships and actions to address gaps within and opportunities to 

strengthen the region's seafood system so that it works more effectively for emerging entrepreneurs, 

owner-on-board fish harvesters, and other small seafood businesses.

This planning project will catalyze community collaboration to strengthen the Washington coast seafood 

system capacity and help stakeholders identify collaborative strategies to improve incomes, economic 

opportunities and job creation for the region's seafood entrepreneurs and small businesses.

We will use a WealthWorks approach, which focuses on building multiple forms of community wealth, 

enhancing local ownership, and expanding equitable access to economic opportunity. The project will 

include the following activities:

• an asset assessment process to identify and document assets, with a particular focus on 

underutilized assets;

• a value chain mapping process in which a "picture" of the value chain is developed by 

stakeholders, and gaps and opportunities are identified and prioritized based on agreed-upon 

criteria; and

• an action planning process to identify working groups around emerging areas of interest and a 

concrete set of next steps.

Based on needs emerging from the action planning process, project partners will look for opportunities 

to connect stakeholders with further resources to support long-term work to improve the region's 

seafood system.