The Middle of the Supply Chain Grants will give:

  • Grants to middle of the supply chain food and farm businesses who are supporting or providing regional food distribution and aggregation, processing and packaging of fresh produce, grains, dry beans, and other legumes and/or value added products for wholesale markets.

  • Grants will only fund middle of the supply chain activities and projects that will market products to wholesale markets such as schools, institutions, grocers, and support other intermediary markets such as food hubs, post-harvest and processing facilities, or other distribution networks.


Infrastructure Grant

Infrastructure Grants will range from $100,000 up to $1 million. Grants can fund capital investments such a construction, equipment (e.g. delivery vehicles, frozen or refrigerates storage, value-added, food processing equipment, or other equipment for middle-of-the-supply-chain activities), and building renovations. Infrastructure Grants can also fund facility design or engineering, staff time, modernizing systems (e.g. tracking, storage, information technology, etc.), plan development (e.g. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan), and market development. A match is required for Infrastructure Grants and starts at 50% of the total project cost. However, if the main applicant qualifies as underserved, the match requirement will be reduced to 25% of the total project cost.

Pre-Proposals were due February 28th and are now closed.

Applications selected to submit full proposals must submit them by March 15th. Full proposals must be submitted in the USDA RFSI Dynamic PDF template. If you were selected to submit a full application please submit them to applications@iowarfsi.org.

Applicants will be required to provide documentation to substantiate the costs of the project, which can include quotes, contracts and catalog pricing. Equipment must be within the USDA’s definition of special purpose equipment for processing, aggregation and distribution.

See program Frequently Asked Questions for additional guidance and example projects.

Equipment Only Grant

Timeline

Equipment-Only Grants can range from $10,000 up to $100,000. This grant can only fund equipment. Equipment may be new, used, or refurbished. 10% match is required for Equipment-Only Grants.

Examples of Equipment Grants include, but are not limited to: equipment that expands capacity and infrastructure for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally- and regionally-produced food products, including specialty crops, grains for human consumption, aquaculture, and other value-added food products.

Pre-proposals were due March 8th and are now closed, if selected full proposals will be due April 15th. Applicants will be notified after March 20th if they were selected to submit a full proposal for equipment only projects.

Applicants will be required to provide documentation to substantiate the costs of each piece of equipment, which can include quotes, contracts and catalog pricing. Equipment must be within the USDA’s definition of special purpose equipment for processing, aggregation and distribution.

See program Frequently Asked Questions for additional guidance and example projects.

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