Virginia Department Of Agriculture And Consumer Services

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Budget Office/Grants Administrator Division operates as a state government entity that receives federal grants and contracts to provide food safety inspections, animal disease surveillance, pest monitoring, and commodity distribution services across Virginia. The agency acts as a recipient of federal awards rather than a commercial vendor, with 99% of its recent federal footprint comprising direct prime grants and contracts to the state, and only 1% sub-awarded work.

VDACS's federal work concentrates heavily in agricultural and food regulatory services. The top funding relationships reflect this: the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service dominates both award count (247 awards, though carrying modest individual values) and overall dollars, anchoring a $45.2 million potential value from six Veterinary Services awards, primarily a single-award indefinite-delivery contract for diagnostic testing services to the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) valued at $25 million, running through September 2031. The Food and Drug Administration has awarded 30 contracts for human food and animal food state inspections, totaling $9.7 million in potential value; representative awards include a $1.884 million definitive contract for human food Virginia state inspections (awarded September 2026, completing September 2031) and a $135,949 award for Virginia animal food inspections. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has granted VDACS cooperative agreements for meat and poultry inspection operations, including a $4.495 million cooperative agreement for intrastate meat and poultry inspection (CFDA 10.477, October 2025–September 2026). Agricultural Marketing Service awards cover specialty crop research and local food purchase assistance programs.

VDACS also administers multiple formula grants for food assistance and nutrition, including Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) funding (CFDA 10.568) and Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) administrative grants (CFDA 10.565), both recurring annually. The agency receives ongoing cooperative agreements from USDA APHIS for plant and animal disease surveillance, pest survey coordination, and emergency response preparedness. Recent work includes cooperative agreements for spotted lanternfly control ($220,500), animal disease traceability and identification ($174,146), avian influenza testing and emergency response, forest pest surveys, and endangered species conservation surveys. VDACS subcontracts minimal work; the six sub-awards listed are grants passed through to organizations such as the Gypsy Moth Slow the Spread Foundation for spongy moth eradication activities.

Activity has remained flat to slightly declining: 29 awards in 2025 and 20 awards through September 2026 compare to a peak of 38 in 2023. The combined obligated dollars ($251.6 million) substantially exceed the combined potential value ($56.5 million), indicating that many smaller recurring formula grants and task orders carry modest individual ceilings but generate significant annual obligations across the funding period. Twenty-six awards will complete within the next twenty-four months, with combined potential value of $1.5 million, representing routine recompete cycles for annual cooperative agreements and food inspection contracts. VDACS serves 23 distinct federal agencies but operates almost exclusively in civilian agricultural, food safety, and nutrition administration roles; no Defense Department contracts or classified work appears in the source.