By Blake Jackson
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), has announced 11 new projects funded through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program.
The initiative aims to strengthen local and regional food systems while enhancing resilience across the middle of the food supply chain.
These 11 recipients will receive Equipment-Only grants and join the 40 Equipment-Only and 30 Infrastructure grantees previously selected earlier this year. Altogether, the RFSI Program has supported 81 projects statewide, with a total investment of $27.2 million.
The program focuses on expanding the middle of the supply chain for locally and regionally produced foods, offering small and mid-sized farmers improved market access and boosting capacity for value-added processing, storage, aggregation, and distribution.
“An efficient food supply chain is vital to keeping Wisconsin farmers thriving and putting food on the table of consumers,” said DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski.
“RFSI awardees are using their grants to make innovations and improvements to their operations; develop new products for the consumer marketplace; and create new opportunities in food processing, packaging, and distribution.”
In this second round, DATCP received 135 applications seeking over $10.3 million in funding. The 11 selected grantees will share $871,000 to advance various agricultural projects across the state.
Awardees include: B&E’s Trees LLC (Embark), Dalla Terra Pasta, Farm Happy, Great Waters Nut Company, Park Ridge Organics, Red Rivers Finest Maple Syrup, Savanna Institute’s Go-First Farm, Squashington Farm, The Apple Farmer LLC (Atoms to Apples), Train Family Ecoprises, and Widmer’s Cheese Cellars.
This funding is part of the USDA-AMS’s $420 million RFSI Grant Program, which supports the growth and resilience of local and regional food supply chains nationwide. For more details, visit ams.usda.gov.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-valentinrussanov
Categories: Wisconsin, Government & Policy