Dec. 21—FRANKFORT — The application portal for Kentucky entities to take advantage of the more than $8.6 million will open soon.
The funds were awarded to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure program. Funds will be provided through a competitive grant process and is part of an overall $420 million the USDA committed to states to build resilience in the middle of the supply chain and strengthen local and regional food systems.
Applications for those grants are expected to open in early January 2024.
Eligible projects include those that expand capacity for aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling and distribution of food products for specialty crops, dairy, grains for human consumption, aquaculture and other food products, excluding meat and poultry.
The funds come out of the American Rescue Plan for states and territories via formula funding. To award its share, KDA will work in partnership with USDA to make competitive subawards to support infrastructure and equipment grants.
The grants will be awarded in two funding streams:
-Infrastructure: Available for applicants interested in building resiliency across the middle-of-the-food-supply-chain. Applicants can apply for cost-share support from a minimum of $100,000 to a maximum of $3 million for eligible projects. Successful applicants will need to provide 50 to 25% match based on them meeting federal definitions for Small or Historically Underserved Business Owners.
-Equipment-only: The equipment-only grant provides money for eligible equipment that meets the funding criteria. Applicants can apply for cost-share support from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000 for eligible equipment. Successful applicants can receive 100 percent funding for approved equipment.
Prior to submitting its state plan, KDA conducted a public survey to gather opinions on how best the USDA funding could be used. The questions were constructed to allow individuals to be better able to express themselves more openly and honestly and help the KDA receive more genuine and authentic suggestions. With these genuine comments, it has helped KDA in making the state plan adhere to Kentucky's needs.
In Kentucky's proposed state plan, KDA will collaborate with three partners to assist applicants with technical assistance in the RFSI program. Those partners are the Kentucky Center for Agriculture & Rural Development (KCARD), the University of Kentucky's — The Food Connection (TFC) and the Community Farm Alliance (CFA).