On March 3, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management awarded over a million dollars to four local recipients through federal Resilient Food System Infrastructure Program grants.
According to a RIDEM press release, the grants aim to develop local agriculture and businesses and support food system resiliency.
New England states don’t tend to produce their own food and often source from the southern or western U.S., Central America or South America, according to Ananda Fraser, an environmental policy analyst for RIDEM. They are often “on the very end of the supply chain,” she said.
Farmable land in Rhode Island is also the most expensive in the nation, said Jack Sisson, chief of program development for agricultural grants at RIDEM. According to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farm real estate in Rhode Island is approximately four times more costly than the national average.
Because of this, New England’s local economies were hit hard by supply chain disruptions as seen during the pandemic, Fraser said. Through the grants, RIDEM hopes to strengthen Rhode Island’s infrastructure for local processing and distribution of agricultural products.
The four recipients — Southside Community Land Trust, Brandon Family Farm, Farm Fresh Rhode Island and the Hard-Pressed Cider Company — are all local businesses who work in the mid-stage of the supply chain, according to the press release.
The middle of the supply chain refers to the time between harvesting crops and transporting them to the market, Sisson said.
This grant marks the first time in a decade that large funds have been available to the state’s mid-stage supply chain producers, Fraser said. “It’s traditionally very difficult for growers to get large capital investments.”
According to Sisson, the grant review committee favored projects that would offer benefits to multiple producers.
Heather Brandon, co-owner of Brandon Family Farm, said that the farm has maintained friendly relationships with other local farms, adding that “being able to collaborate on a bigger scale in that way just makes sense.”
Brandon Family Farm, for example, was awarded over $100,000 to renovate farm buildings. These renovations will allow small farmers to access more storage space and sell more crops through collective purchasing agreements, according to the press release.
Local nonprofit Southside Community Land Trust was awarded the largest grant — over $500,000 — to build the Cranston Food Hub, an extension of SCLT’s Produce Aggregation Program, which will aggregate and store produce for small farmers to more consumers.
SCLT Spokesperson Sam Shepherd described the hub as a “much-needed facility.”
Shepherd predicts that the Cranston Food Hub will “directly benefit 155 producers and partners” — including producers from historically marginalized backgrounds — and support “significant growth in sales and market opportunities.”
Awardee Farm Fresh R.I. is also focused on bringing together farmers to sell a larger volume of products. Their nearly $200,000 grant will be used to improve their virtual marketplace and establish Rhody Red Sauce, a pilot program that produces sauce for K-12 cafeterias through support for local tomato producers.
Delite Primus, the advancement director for Farm Fresh R.I., said that supporting local agriculture is important for consumers’ health and the local economy.
Robert Swanson, the owner of the Hard-Pressed Cider Company said they plan to use their grant money of over $280,000 to build a new cider processing facility.
Swanson emphasized the importance of supporting local community members in an email to The Herald: “Local businesses keep money in the local economy and hire local people.”
