Illinois Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program

The purpose of the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program is to build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, to provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, to support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, fair wages, and new and safe job opportunities. The RFSI purpose is expanding middle of the food supply chain capacity for locally and regionally produced foods, to offer 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 value-added products, such as underserved producers). RFSI projects should expand the capacity and market opportunities for local and regional producers in the middle of the food supply chain. The food supply chain involves the following stages: 1. Production, 2. Processing, 3. Aggregation/Distribution, and 4. Markets/Consumers. For the purposes of RFSI, “middle-of-the-supply-chain” refers to the middle stages: 2. Processing and 3. Aggregation/Distribution.