DACF Schedules an Additional Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program Virtual Office Hours
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) is preparing to open its Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program. In preparation for a Request for Applications (RFA), DACF has launched a RFSI program webpage providing a program overview, contact information, quick facts, and an anticipated timeline.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with state Departments of Agriculture to invest in food supply chain resilience, market access, and value-added processing infrastructure through RFSI. The purpose of Maine's RFSI program is to build resilience across the state's middle of the food supply chain. RFSI Infrastructure Project Grant applications must demonstrate market impact and articulate how the Project is designed to solve challenges, increase middle of the supply chain capacity and resiliency (e.g. processing, aggregation, and distribution), and enhance market access for Maine-produced agricultural food and beverage products.
All RFSI-funded foods and beverages must be for human consumption, be intended to contribute to more and better markets for local producers (no foods intended for donation to a food bank or pantry network) and must consist of 67% or more Maine-grown and harvested ingredients. The USDA defines grown and harvested to mean farm cultivated and harvested and not wild-caught. No meat, poultry, foraged, wild-caught, or otherwise ineligible ingredients may be included in food products funded through the RFSI program.
RFSI Virtual Office Hours
Maine DACF previously held four RFSI virtual office hours to provide an overview of the program and to answer RFSI Infrastructure Project Grant questions.
To help facilitate further understanding, an additional RFSI Virtual Office Hours has been scheduled on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.
Please email Michelle Webb, Maine RFSI Program Coordinator, to register: michelle.t.webb@maine.gov.
Once the Maine RFSI RFA opens (anticipated in late March), DACF will conduct one round of questions and answers to address general inquiries about the application process through the Maine Procurement Systems RFA Q&A process, as listed in the upcoming RFSI RFA instructions. Questions received during office hours will be published on the Maine RFSI Program Webpage.
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