Regional Food System Partnerships (10.177)
Regional Food System Partnerships (Assistance Listing 10.177) is run by the Agricultural Marketing Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. It awarded $58.1 million in 109 grants from fiscal 2021 to 2025, about $532,885 per award on average. No funding opportunity is open on Grants.gov right now.
The typical award was $256,592. Half of the 109 awards fell between $244,801 and $937,409, and they ranged from $100,000 to $1.8 million.
- Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$58.1 million
- Grant awards109
- Typical award$256,592
- Awarded in FY 2025$5.2 million
- Size rank987 of 1824
- Type of assistanceGrant
Key findings
- Annual funding fell from $9.3 million in fiscal 2021 to $5.2 million in fiscal 2025.
- It is the 987th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
- The 20 largest recipients received 42% of the money.
- Awards went to recipients in 43 states and territories.
What the program funds
RRFSP is a component of the Local Agricultural Marketing Program (LAMP). RFSP supports partnerships that brings together public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems and encourages food economy viability and resilience. Through RFSP, AMS works together with partners to accelerate local or regional food system growth through increased access to local knowledge and networks. Partners will lead the scope determination of the regional food system to be developed, including goals, outreach objectives, and eligible activities to be carried out, while coordinating with AMS to receive technical and financial assistance.
Open opportunities
No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.
Rules from the program listing
What the money can and cannot pay for
Funds may be used to plan and develop local or regional food systems and encourages food economy viability and resilience. Eligible entities may not use grant funds for the purchase of land, or for construction or rehabilitation of a building or structure or the purchase of general purpose equipment.;
Matching requirements
This program has no statutory formula. A 25% cash match is required of the total Federal portion of the grant.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.
Deadlines
Funding opportunities are available annually. Applicants must review the applicable Request for Applications (RFA) for specific application deadlines. Refer to the program webpage at https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants and visit the How to Apply tab for additional information.
Award range and average, in the agency's words
Planning & Design $100,000-$250,000 and Implementation & Expansion projects $250,000-$1,000,000 and Farm to Institution projects $250,000-$1,000,000. Please see RFA for full details.
Examples of funded projects
Fiscal Year2025: An RFSP project continues to engage diverse stakeholders along the food chain (institutions, producers, aggregators, and support organizations) in moving more local food through local institutions through: working groups focused on Land Access/Shared Assets, Value Chain Coordination, and Institutional Community of Practice; in-person trainings across Oregon for farmers, ranchers, fisherman, food hubs and food businesses regarding accessing institutional markets; in-person trainings for institutional food buyers on best practice for local food purchasing; and providing tailored support to producers/manufacturers for value added product development for institutions. To strengthen education and collaboration partnership led a four week course on understanding Value Chain Coordination for food hub; and identified 177 qualified institutions for sales potential in Oregon and made contact with 84 of those, resulting in sales with 26 institutions totaling approximately $70,000 in sales in just the last few months of the project.
Funding history and past recipients
From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Regional Food System Partnerships (10.177) awarded$58.1 million across 109 grant awards, an average of $532,885 per award.
Who usually wins
Nonprofits received 73% of the money, colleges and universities 13% and state and local governments 6.6%.
| Recipient type | Awards | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonprofits | 81 | $42.6 million | 73% |
| Colleges and universities | 12 | $7.6 million | 13% |
| State and local governments | 7 | $3.8 million | 6.6% |
| Other | 4 | $2.2 million | 3.8% |
| Businesses | 3 | $1.4 million | 2.5% |
| Tribal governments and organizations | 1 | $250,000 | 0.4% |
| Small businesses | 1 | $215,750 | 0.4% |
By state
21 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.
| State | Awards | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| California | 10 | $4.7 million |
| Virginia | 7 | $4.5 million |
| Washington | 4 | $3.1 million |
| New York | 6 | $3.0 million |
| Massachusetts | 5 | $3.0 million |
| Kentucky | 5 | $2.9 million |
| Maine | 4 | $2.8 million |
| Iowa | 2 | $2.7 million |
| Michigan | 2 | $2.5 million |
| Colorado | 6 | $2.1 million |
| Hawaii | 3 | $2.0 million |
| North Carolina | 2 | $1.8 million |
| Ohio | 2 | $1.3 million |
| District of Columbia | 2 | $1.2 million |
| Wisconsin | 3 | $1.2 million |
| Louisiana | 2 | $1.2 million |
| New Mexico | 2 | $1.2 million |
| Oregon | 4 | $1.1 million |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | $1.1 million |
| Kansas | 3 | $1.1 million |
| Tennessee | 1 | $1.0 million |
| Montana | 1 | $999,184 |
| Indiana | 1 | $998,298 |
| Mississippi | 1 | $990,764 |
| New Jersey | 1 | $946,505 |
| Oklahoma | 1 | $945,779 |
| Alaska | 4 | $931,027 |
| Florida | 2 | $859,250 |
| Vermont | 3 | $695,244 |
| Texas | 3 | $612,611 |
| Illinois | 1 | $525,000 |
| Georgia | 2 | $500,000 |
| Arkansas | 2 | $499,966 |
| South Carolina | 1 | $479,893 |
| Arizona | 1 | $475,472 |
| Maryland | 2 | $354,956 |
| Nevada | 1 | $256,592 |
| South Dakota | 1 | $250,000 |
| West Virginia | 1 | $249,972 |
| Connecticut | 1 | $249,715 |
| Utah | 1 | $224,691 |
| Idaho | 1 | $203,590 |
| Minnesota | 1 | $111,694 |