Maryland 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, provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, support the development of value-added products for consumers, encourage fair prices and fair wages, and establish new and safe job opportunities. MDA has a cooperative agreement with USDA for $3.8 million dollars to implement this grant. MDA conducted statewide outreach through a priority identification survey and virtual outreach meeting to develop funding priorities for the RFSI program in Maryland. Based on the collected data from surveys and input from outreach meetings, funding priorities for Maryland RFSI subawards will include: -Cold storage equipment. -Expanding the capacity for processing, aggregation, and distribution. -Supporting construction of new facilities . -Improving operations through employee training. -Modernizing manufacturing, tracking, storage, and information technology systems.