LASA award winners include (from left) Journey Basham from Lucayda Farms in Cranston; Bill Gardner and Wicked Tiny Farm in Narragansett; and Graham Watson at West Passage Oyster Company in North Kingstown.
In late March 2025, Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management awarded 33 local farmers, fishers, and specialty food producers with grants totaling $486,000. The Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) annual grants support the growth, development, and marketing of local farms, seafood harvesters, and food businesses.
This twelfth year of LASA funding may be more important than ever in supporting the state’s local food industry, Governor Dan McKee noted at a March 27 awards event at Farm Fresh Rhode Island headquarters. “Given the unpredictability of federal funding support, state-led investment is critical to providing stability for our farmers, fishers, and food producers, while strengthening our state’s food security and economic resilience.”
“LASA is an amazing program,” says Maggie Longo, a Rhode Island Food Policy Council member who has helped interested applicants shape their funding requests and submit the applications for the last three years. The state’s online platform for the grant applications can be challenging to navigate, Longo says, and many applicants need help making their pitch for up to $20,000 in grants.
“It’s an opportunity to help [applicants] think about their business,” Longo says of her assistance. “I help them articulate how that new tiller or other equipment will help drive their business forward. I help them learn to think that way.”
Longo loves the variety of LASA awardees this year across sectors from aquaculture and beekeepers to flower and herb growers, programming, and more.
See full list of LASA grantees.
https://dem.ri.gov/press-releases/governor-mckee-dem-general-assembly-award-nearly-half-million-grants-local-farmers
The state also recently awarded more than $1 million in Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) grants to four local food businesses and organizations. The RFSI grants, funded through American Rescue Plan funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are designed to support the middle of the supply chain in Rhode Island’s local food system. Grant awardees include:
- Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Providence, $193,463 to expand and upgrade its Food Hub
- Southside Community Land Trust, Cranston, $519,939 to develop its Cranston Food Hub, a new facility at Urban Edge Farm
- Brandon Family Farm, West Kingston, $101,670 to expand and upgrade its facilities for aggregating and distribution local produce, and
- The Hard-Pressed Cider Company, West Greenwich, $282,844 to build a new cider production facility.
RFSI grants were made available under the Biden administration to local projects that would strengthen the resilience in local food systems and create new revenue streams for small and mid-sized farmers and producers. “This federal investment will benefit food producers statewide and help get more fresh, Rhode Island-grown food and products to tables, grocery stores, and restaurants across the region and beyond,” says Senator Jack Reed.
Read more about the RFSI grants.
https://dem.ri.gov/press-releases/over-1m-grants-awarded-support-ris-local-food-system
Big Train Farm, a certified organic vegetable farm in North Scituate, RI, was one of 33 farms, fisheries, and specialty producers to win Local Agriculture and Seafood Act grants from Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management.