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Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is administering grant funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Services (AMS) Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI). The open application period for this Maine funding opportunity has closed. The funding source for this program is not recurring, and there are currently no plans for additional RFSI application periods
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA AMS) is partnering with state Departments of Agriculture to invest in food supply chain resilience, market access, and value-added processing infrastructure through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI). The purpose of the Maine Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program is to build resilience across Maine's middle of the food supply chain. Funds will support expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of Maine-produced food and beverage products, including specialty crops (farm cultivated and processed for human food consumption), dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other food products, excluding meat and poultry and foraged food products.
All RFSI Infrastructure Project Grant-funded foods and beverages must be for human consumption, be intended to contribute to more and better markets for local producers (no foods intentionally produced or processed for donation to a food bank or pantry network). RFSI-funded foods must be produced in the State of Maine with Maine-grown and harvested ingredients. The USDA defines grown, harvested, or produced to mean farm-cultivated and harvested and not wild-caught. No meat, poultry, foraged, or wild-caught ingredients may be included in food products funded in any manner through the RFSI program.
Application Materials
The Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Project Grant (RFSI-IG) application period opened on March 29, 2024, and closed on April 29, 2024. Download RFA
The Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Equipment-only Grant (RFSI-EO) application period opened on September 13, 2024, and closed on October 28, 2024. Download RFA (DOCX)
Important Note: The downloadable RFA files are posted here as reference only and are no longer open for submission.