PROVIDENCE — The federal government, though Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) grants, is providing four Rhode Island entities with $1.1 million to help support and grow the state’s local food system.

These projects support the development of RI Grown products and will support expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling, and distribution of locally produced products, according to the Department of Environmental Management.

DEM’s RFSI grant program is supported by American Rescue Plan funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide grants that directly support middle of the supply chain activities in the state’s local food system.

The following are the four grant awardees:

Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Providence ($193,463): Through this project, the Farm Fresh Food Hub will upgrade equipment, expand processing capabilities, and modernize IT systems to build resilience in the center of the supply chain and increase new market opportunities for local and regional farmers with wholesale and institutional customers. In this scope of work, Farm Fresh will pilot Rhody Red Sauce, a product that will incorporate locally grown food into a sauce for K-12 cafeterias.

Southside Community Land Trust, Cranston ($519,939): SCLT will develop the Cranston Food Hub, a new facility at Urban Edge Farm that will streamline and expand the organization’s capacity to aggregate, process, store, and distribute locally sourced and culturally familiar produce grown by the small-scale farms operated by historically underserved producers based in SCLT’s land access network in Greater Providence.

Brandon Family Farm, West Kingston ($101, 670): The operation will make several upgrades and additions to a farm building that will allow it to aggregate and distribute some 75 tons of RI Grown produce annually to grocery stores across the state through a collective purchasing agreement between at least eight different farms.

Hard-Pressed Cider Co., West Greenwich ($282,844): The company will use the money to build a new apple cider production facility on its farm. The production facility will focus on the aggregation of local apples to increase the ability to store, sort, wash, and process them into apple cider, hard apple cider, and other apple food products while improving food and worker safety.