Food Safety Outreach Program

The National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance Program will award grants that increase the understanding and adoption of established food safety standards, guidance, and protocols. Grants awarded through

The FSOP (USDA‑NIFA) is a competitive grants program designed to support food safety training, education, outreach, and technical assistance tailored for small- and mid-sized producers, small processors, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, and small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers affected by FSMA regulations. It aims to fund: Community Outreach Projects: Develop or expand customized, locally driven food safety outreach and education for niche producer groups. Collaborative Education & Training Projects: Multi-county, state-wide, or multi-state initiatives to deliver training and technical assistance addressing FSMA-related needs. Technical Assistance - Grant Writing Skills Projects: Build grant-writing capacity to strengthen future FSOP applications. Development of training materials in areas like pre- and post-harvest water testing, soil amendments, supply chain programs, and food safety plan development

The Cooperative Extension Service for a U.S. state or territory; A non-profit community-based or non-governmental organization representing owners and operators of farms, small food processors, or small fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers that has a commitment to public health and expertise in administering programs that contribute to food safety; An institution of higher education (as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)) or a foundation maintained by an institution of higher education; Federal, State, Local, or Tribal Agencies, A collaboration of two or more eligible entities; or Such other appropriate entity, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.

The Cooperative Extension Service for a U.S. state or territory; A non-profit community-based or non-governmental organization representing owners and operators of farms, small food processors, or small fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers that has a commitment to public health and expertise in administering programs that contribute to food safety; An institution of higher education (as defined in Section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)) or a foundation maintained by an institution of higher education; Federal, State, Local, or Tribal Agencies, A collaboration of two or more eligible entities; or Such other appropriate entity, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.

The new National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance proposals are expected to describe Regional Centers that have a leading role in coordinating the development of FSMA-related training, education, and outreach programs and resources for small and medium-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, small processors, and/or small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. An outreach plan for conducting education and training to a cadre of regional FSMA trainers must be developed, along with an implementation plan for extending both training and technical assistance to the targeted audiences of farmers, processors and vendors in the respective regions. In addition, the Regional Centers must work collaboratively with a National Coordination Center for Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance to ensure that training curricula and resources cover core competencies across all funded regional centers, and to provide annual reports to NIFA on overall program objectives.

Indirect Costs (IDC) not to exceed 30 percent of total Federal funds awarded (TFFA). Section 1462(a) and (c) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3310(a) and (c)) limits IDC for the overall award to 30 percent of TFFA under a research, education, or extension grant.

In accordance with statutory time limits, project periods, including no-cost extensions of time, vary from (1) to five (5) years. Further details are provided in the Award document Form NIFA-2009 and the NIFA General Terms and Conditions Grants and Cooperative Agreements.

All NOFOs are published on the NIFA website and Grants.gov. Applicants must complete the SAM.gov and Grants.gov registration process prior to applying. See the program NOFO for any program specific pre-application requirements.

2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for this listing will be posted on Grants.gov. All applications must be received by the established deadline. General application instructions are listed in the NIFA Grants Application Guide. Program-specific instructions are listed in the NOFO. The NOFO overrides the Application Guide if there is a discrepancy between the two documents. Applicants must apply electronically through Grants.gov; no other method or response is accepted. The application forms package for this funding opportunity must be accessed through Grants.gov. Part III of the NIFA Grants Application Guide explains how to access a specific application forms package. Parts II and III of the NIFA Grants Application Guide contain resources to assist grant applicants and detailed information regarding the Grants.gov registration process. Applications must be signed by the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR). Contact your AOR prior to starting an application to assess the organization's readiness to submit an electronic application.

NIFA evaluates each application in a two-part process. First, each application is reviewed to ensure that it meets the administrative requirements set forth in the NOFO. Second, a peer-review process (https://www.nifa.usda.gov/nifa-peer-review-process-competitive-grant-applications) will be used to evaluate the scientific and technical merit of applications that have meet the administrative requirements. After each peer review panel has completed deliberations, the responsible NIFA program staff will either recommend an application for support from available funds or decline an application due to insufficient funds or unfavorable review. See the program NOFO for more details.

Within the limit of funds authorized, the NIFA awarding official will make grants to eligible applicants whose applications are judged most meritorious under the procedures set forth in this NOFO. Successful applicants receive two types of notifications in the award phase: informal and formal. After award recommendations are complete, NIFA will provide an informal notification to the potential awardee. This informal notification is not an authorization to begin performance. After the award is finalized, a formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA), signed by the Authorized Departmental Officer, will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the recipient's Authorized Representative. The NoA will provide pertinent instructions and information including, at a minimum, the information described in 2 CFR 200.211 (see NIFA's Terms and Conditions).

Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate, for application deadlines.

Contact the National Program Leader (NPL) regarding dates for specific deadlines, start and end dates, and range of approval/disapproval time.

Specific details are provided in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), which are generally published annually. The most current NOFO is available via: https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/food-safety-outreach-program