Evaluating Minnesota’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program

Partnership between Minnesota Department of Agriculture & Center for Rural Policy and Development

Snapshot

Client Type: State agency and federal program partners
Focus Area: Food systems, infrastructure, equity, and economic resilience
Engagement Type: Multi-year program evaluation and capacity building
Key Challenge: Understanding program implementation and outcomes across diverse food system investments
Primary Outcome: Actionable insights into grantee impact and collective food system resilience

Key Takeaways

  • Multi-year evaluations support deeper learning and continuous improvement.

  • Evaluation capacity building strengthens both data quality and grantee ownership.

  • Aggregating grantee-level data reveals system-level impact beyond individual projects.

  • Through funding from the USDA’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program, Minnesota invested $9.5 million in grants to strengthen the middle of the food supply chain. Eleven businesses and organizations across the state were selected through a competitive process to implement projects focused on processing, storage, distribution, and workforce development.

    The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Center for Rural Policy and Development, engaged Bridgepoint Evaluation to lead a comprehensive, three-year evaluation of the program and its grantees.

  • State and federal partners needed to understand not only whether individual projects were progressing as intended, but also how the collective set of investments contributed to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food system. The evaluation had to balance accountability and learning while supporting grantees with varying levels of evaluation experience and capacity.

  • Bridgepoint Evaluation serves as the evaluation partner for the RFSI program, combining evaluation capacity building with mixed-method data collection and synthesis.

    Key components of the evaluation include:

    • Building grantee evaluation capacity through tools, guidance, and technical support

    • Conducting site visits to understand implementation in context

    • Aggregating and analyzing data across grantees to assess program-level outcomes

    • Elevating both individual grantee stories and collective impact

    The evaluation design emphasizes learning, adaptability, and usability for both grantees and program administrators.

  • Early findings explore how grantees are adapting projects to address persistent barriers in:

    • Processing and storage

    • Distribution and market access

    • Workforce development

    The evaluation also examines how these investments support small farms and food businesses, expand value-added production, and create fair and safe job opportunities across Minnesota.

  • By centering both grantee experience and program-wide learning, the RFSI evaluation is generating insights that inform real-time decision-making and future food system investments. The work supports greater understanding of how infrastructure funding can strengthen regional food systems while advancing equity and economic opportunity.

About the Work

This engagement reflects Bridgepoint Evaluation’s experience partnering with public agencies to evaluate complex, multi-site programs and translate findings into actionable insights for policy, practice, and future investment.