WIFSS Agroterrorism Preparedness Curriculum Certification Background
On October 1, 2004 the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security (WIFSS) was awarded a $4.7 million dollar grant from the DHS' Office of Grants and Training to help protect the food supply of California and the nation against acts of terrorism. The two year grant enabled the development and delivery of training programs aimed at preparing teams of Frontline Emergency Responders made up of different elements in communities that are fully prepared to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks on the food system.
WIFSS developed a six course Agroterrorism Preparedness Curriculum for Frontline Responders with an overall goal to enhance national security by strengthening preparedness of the frontline emergency responders to assure that there is capacity to respond early and effectively and in coordination with state and federal agencies. To date, WIFSS has trained over 4,000 participants in over 80 communities in 15 states. The feed back has been overwhelmingly positive.
On March 30, 2007 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Preparedness Directorate’s Office of Grants and Training certified all six courses comprising the WIFSS Curriculum. These courses represent the only certified comprehensive agroterrorism training. The certification will allow states and other entities to utilize their DHS training dollars to support this training for their communities.
On October 1, 2007 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, under FEMA, awarded WIFSS a $700,000 grant to continue delivery of the six-course curriculum for one year. This award was made posssible because of the overwhelming national demand for the curriculum.