Dear Colleagues,
In collaboration with the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Regulatory Affairs is pleased to announce that registration for the Retail Flexible Funding Model (RFFM) Grant Program is now open. Grant applications will be accepted from September 9 through November 15, 2021. State, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) retail food regulatory programs may register and apply for funding by visiting: http://neha.org/retailgrants. To learn more about the RFFM Grant Program, please view our YouTube video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-oFvr7Utc&feature=youtu.be.
On September 21, 2021 at 1:00 pm EDT, the FDA will also host a 50-State Conference Call for our SLTT retail food regulatory partners to learn more about the application process. During the call, NEHA will demonstrate the grant portal and answer questions. Additional details regarding the call will be provided to you in a separate message that we will send out in the near future.
The RFFM Grant Program supports the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative’s efforts to modernize the retail food protection system in the U.S. by providing financial assistance to SLTT retail food regulatory programs to:
- Support the use of public health performance metrics to measure program effectiveness.
- Facilitate continuous program improvement and build program capacity through conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS).
- Assess the effectiveness of intervention strategies designed to impact behavioral change and enhance industry’s active managerial control of foodborne illness risk factors.
- Leverage collaborative efforts to build capacity and integration of all SLTTs in support of a national retail food safety program.