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The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is accepting concept applications for Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) grants of up to $100,000 to support more and better processing options for local and regional agricultural producers. This fixed-price equipment-only grant will fund a single equipment purchase. CDFA expects to award up to $2.3 million in total RFSI funding under this solicitation, with concept proposals due July 17, 2025.

What this the purpose of this program? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has awarded CDFA an RFSI cooperative agreement. This solicitation is an extension of the solicitation that ended February 2024.The overall goal of RFSI is to create more and better processing options for local and regional producers across the specialty crops, dairy, grain (for food), and other sectors by targeting gaps and opportunities in the pandemic assistance, Food Systems Transformation programs, and existing USDA grant programs that support the agricultural supply chain. Projects should expand middle-of-the-supply-chain capacity for locally and regionally produced foods and offer more and better market opportunities and new streams of revenue 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 valued-added products, such as underserved producers.

Who is eligible to apply? Entities eligible for RFSI grants include:

• Agricultural producers or processors, or groups of agricultural producers and processors.
• Nonprofit organizations operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.
• Local government entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.
• Tribal governments operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.
• Institutions such as schools, university, or hospitals bringing producers together to establish cooperate or shared infrastructure or to invest in equipment that will benefit multiple producers’ middle-of-the-supply-chain activities.

All applicants and organizations must be domestically owned, and applicant’s facilities must be physically located within the State of California. All projects must benefit crops grown in California.

Prior recipients of RFSI funding are not eligible to request or receive additional funding, including under another business entity and/or Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).

What types of activities are eligible for this program? Middle-of-the-supply-chain activities refers to activities in the Processing and/or Aggregation and Distribution stages. Examples of activities are listed below, some of which include:

• Packaging, including grading, sorting, and labeling;
• Processing, canning, preserving, or pasteurizing crops;
• Extraction of juice, oil, nut meat, etc. from crops;
• Processing crops, such as chopping, washing, peeling, drying, hulling, milling, shelling, etc.;
• Creating value-added products via cooking, baking, juicing, fermenting, distilling, processing, etc.;
• Processes or activities involving tracking, storage, cold storage, warehouse, and/or distribution of crops and/or products;
• Enhancing worker safety and/or education in the above or similar activities;
• Modernizing, developing, or expanding equipment or facilities used for the above or similar activities.

What are the funding details? CDFA will award up to $2.3 million under this solicitation. The minimum award amount is $10,000 and the maximum award amount is $100,000. No match is required. Match is allowable to cover any costs above the maximum award amount of $100,000. Equipment with a total cost of $200,000 or greater is not eligible for this solicitation, even if the applicant is able to cover the costs above $100,000 with matching funds.

What is the estimated program timeline? Concept proposals are due by July 17, 2025 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. The applicants with the highest ranked projects will then work with CDFA staff during the months of August and September to complete a more detailed grant proposal for submission to USDA in October 2025. Awards are anticipated to be announced in November 2025, and projects are expected to complete all equipment purchases by December 31, 2025.

The full Request for Proposals (RFP) can be found here.

Morrison has extensive experience writing successful applications for RFSI and other CDFA programs. For more information on this grant or how to apply with Morrison’s assistance, please contact the Morrison Grants Team by email at grants@morrisonco.net or call us at 530-893-4764.