The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection accepting applications for two Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grants

The two RFSI grants, the Infrastructure Grant and the Equipment-Only Grant, are funded through a cooperative agreement between DATCP and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). A total of $27 million is available in grant funding.

RFSI grant projects must expand middle-of-the food supply chain capacity for locally- and regionally-produced foods and offer more and better market opportunities to small- and mid-sized agricultural producers, including those who may not have access to value-added opportunities or processing to meet market demand for premium or value-added products, such as underserved producers.

For additional information, including application materials, visit DATCP’s Wisconsin Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program page. 

Infrastructure Grant

These grant awards will range from $100,000 up to $3 million. This grant can fund capital investments such as construction, equipment (e.g. delivery vehicles, frozen or refrigerated storage, value-added food processing equipment, or other equipment for middle-of-the food 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.

Equipment-Only Grant

These grant awards range from $10,000 up to $99,999. This grant can only fund equipment (examples provided above). Equipment may be new, used, or refurbished. No match is required for Equipment-Only Grants. 

Webinar

An informational webinar about applying for the RFSI grants will be held on Thursday, January 9, 2024 at 11 a.m. via ZoomGov. Registration is required.

Register for the webinar.

Office Hours

DATCP will host open office hour sessions to answer specific RFSI grant questions on these dates:

• Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 1 p.m.
• Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 1 p.m.
• Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 1 p.m.
• Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 1 p.m.

Register for the office hours.

Contact

Email: RFSI@wi.gov​

Sign up for RFSI Program updates. 

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