Alaska, May 9, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced finalists for the USDA Regional Food Business Centers (Regional Food Centers). Twelve groups of organizations, including the Alaska Food Policy Council (AFPC), have been selected as finalists to establish Regional Food Centers that will provide coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers, and other food businesses access new markets and navigate federal, state, and local resources, thereby closing the gaps to success. In September 2022, USDA announced $400 million available to fund this initiative.
https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/local-regional/rfbcp
Pending an Administrative Review, USDA and the Hawaii Good Food Alliance, with key partners AFPC and Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition, will enter into a cooperative agreement to establish an Islands and Remote Areas USDA Regional Food Business Center that will serve Hawaiʻi, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“USDA looks forward to partnering with the Alaska Food Policy Council on this innovative and unprecedented initiative,” said Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. “By leveraging the expertise soon to be available through these Regional Food Centers, USDA will be able to offer unique support for local food systems development across the country.”
“This is a huge investment for Alaska’s food producers, with potentially transformative outcomes for the whole state. We have a rare opportunity to help build a better food system that is more sustainable, equitable, and resilient,” says AFPC Executive Director Robbi Mixon.
Collectively, the finalist organizations selected reflect an impressive cross-section of the varied institutions, organizations, and associations that must cooperate to achieve genuinely strong and distributed food systems. AFPC and the other finalist organizations are already engaging with grassroots food and farm organizations and employing a range of creative strategies to build food system resiliency in their regions.
In total, USDA will establish 12 Regional Food Business Centers that will serve all areas of the country. Regional Food Centers will target their work to historically underinvested communities in their region.
More information is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Regional Food Business Centers webpage and on AFPC’s website.
