Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) ProposalThe referenced funding opportunity announcement focuses on improvingcollective actions taken to protect the public when unsafe foods are identified.MDARD's proposal would support the development of a national integrated foodsafety system by conducting a pilot project to better coordinate multi-agency foodemergency response actions in Michigan. Proposed activities include: 1) betteraligning local, state, and federal food emergency preparedness activitiesconsistent with the National Incident Management Preparedness cycle, and 2)providing role appropriate on-the-job training to food emergency responders. TheInternational Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) would advise participantsduring job task analyses and development of basic on-the-job training modules toensure consistency with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vision for anintegrated training and certification system. Michigan is uniquely positioned tocomplete this collaborative project, being a border state (home of the secondbusiest truck border crossing point in the nation) that has weathered tougheconomic times and government downsizing. State and federal agencies inMichigan have a proven track record of working together to achieve effectiveresults - including ongoing participation in the FDA Rapid Response Team(RRT) Implementation Project. This proposal would link local public healthagencies with the successful RRT capacity development process. The grant willuse a combination of process and outcome metrics to assess progress towardsidentified capacity building goals. Michigan staff hold leadership positions in arange of partnerships, initiatives, and associations at the local, state, regional,and national levels. These leadership roles will help ensure that the project isaligned with other national initiatives and that lessons learned and best practicesidentified are shared throughout Michigan, the Great Lakes region and the nationas a whole.
- Public Health Relevance The referenced funding opportunity announcement focuses on improving actions taken to protect the public when unsafe foods are identified in our food system. The proposed project will support the development of a national integrated food safety system by conducting a pilot project to improve coordination of multi-agency food emergency response actions in Michigan. The proposed activities include: 1) better aligning local, state, and federal food emergency preparedness activities consistent with the National Incident Management Preparedness cycle, and 2) providing role appropriate on-the-job training to food emergency responders.
