This program supports independently owned meat and poultry processing businesses with funds to provide more and better processing options for local livestock producers by modernizing, increasing, diversifying and decentralizing meat and poultry processing capacity, including support for rendering.
Grants from $100,000 up to $5 million to increase the processing and/or rendering capacity of privately, cooperatively, non-profit, or Tribally held processing facilities as described in this RFA.
Grant recipients are required to contribute 50% of the total proposed project cost as a match to Federal funding. This applies to all applicants except those who qualify for the reduced match.
Reduced match for small and underserved business owners: For grant recipients that are historically underserved farmers or ranchers or for other businesses that qualify under the Small Business Administration (SBA) categories of small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, and veteran-owned small business, the match requirement is reduced to 25% of the total proposed project cost as a match to the Federal funding. Applicants will be required to self-certify in their Project Narrative Template to be eligible for this reduced match.
This stream offers a simplified application to fund smaller grants between $10,000 and $250,000 for equipment purchases for meat and poultry processors.
No match is required for the Simplified Equipment-Only Projects, and a voluntary match will not be considered in selecting projects.
Eligible applicants for Local MCap grants include individual, sole proprietor business or other business entities engaged in meat and poultry processing, including rendering animal carcasses or byproducts, including Tribes and Tribal Entities, for-profit entities, and State or local government entities. Private entities must be independently owned and operated.
Applicants must be domestically owned, and their facilities must be physically located within the 50 States of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Eligible entities must be currently operating and must process or plan to process one or more species subject to the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) or the Poultry Product Inspection Act (PPIA) and possess or plan to obtain a Federal Grant of Inspection, a grant of inspection under the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program, or a state meat and poultry inspection program with standards at least equal to Federal inspection at the time of application. Plants processing non-amenable species under voluntary FSIS or state inspection can also apply for funding.
Fund grants from $100,000 to $5 million to increase processing and/or rendering capacity. Funding requests that include building and facility upgrades, can include improvements to re-arrange and/or alterations to a facility that are required to use space more effectively and to accommodate new or upgraded equipment and processes.
This grant offers a simplified application to fund smaller grants between $10,000 and $250,000 for equipment purchase for meat and poultry processing or rendering facilities. This option is a Fixed Price Grant, meaning it will fund only new equipment purchases and the amount will equal the cost of the equipment up to $250,000.
July 19, 2023