Organization Connecting Agribusiness Industry with Partners in Fight Against Food Insecurity to Use Funds to Increase Efficiencies Throughout Supply Chain

ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, November 11, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Southeast Regional Cooperative, Inc., (SERC), an Atlanta-based organization connecting the agribusiness industry in the southeast with food banks and nonprofits in their fight against food insecurity, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to receive a Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant. SERC will use the funds to develop plans for a regional service center enabling improved sourcing, logistics, production and data management for food banks and other agribusiness partners across the region.

The USDA will provide funding of $250,000. Feeding America partner state associations including Feeding Georgia, Feeding the Carolinas, and Feeding Florida, as well as the Georgia Department of Agriculture and Georgia State University, will provide additional matching funds and in-kind donations.

“The Southeast Regional Cooperative has grown from shipping 8.5 million lbs. of produce when we began in 2017, to shipping 152 million lbs. in our fiscal year ending June 2024,” said Chris Flint, executive director of the Southeast Regional Cooperative, Inc. (SERC). “We are honored to be a recipient of a USDA Regional Food System Partnerships grant and look forward to strengthening collaboration across the region with the agriculture industry, our Feeding America food banking partners and other industry parties across the region.”

Thanks to the Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) grant:

• SERC will engage a wide range of community partners including growers, producers, partner organizations to explore and analyze scope of work, location, value added processing, aggregation, distribution, and 3PL partnerships.

• For profit organizations and institutes of higher education will be engaged to conduct research, integrate diverse data platforms and operating systems, and optimize planning for sourcing and distribution.

• Partners will plan and design a regional service center offering freight supplier development and management, freight brokerage, weekend and evening support, and billing services, including programmatic grant administration.

• SERC will plan and develop strategies to enhance efficiencies and provide more cost-effective collaboration in critical areas including transportation management, middle supply chain logistics, value added processing and integrated data management.

• Attention will be given to developing strategies that create access for socially disadvantaged agrifood businesses, such as growers and freight carriers, with a focus on market access as well as securing funding for long term stability.

Through its Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP), the USDA is awarding $5.2 million to 10 partnerships across 10 states. The $250,000 grant to SERC is the only one being given to a Georgia-based organization.

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About the Southeast Regional Cooperative, Inc. (SERC)

A partner organization of Feeding America, the Southeast Regional Cooperative, Inc. (SERC) connects the agribusiness industry across the Southeast with food banks and nonprofits in their fight against food insecurity.

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