Farm to School Grant Program

Overview

<p>The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA) establishes a Farm to School Program in order to assist eligible entities, through grants and technical assistance, in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods in eligible schools.</p> <p>To fulfill the farm to school mandate in the NSLA, $5 million is provided to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) on an annual basis to support grants, technical assistance, and the Federal administrative costs related to USDA’s Farm to School Program. The USDA Farm to School Grant Program is housed within the Food and Nutrition Services’ (FNS) Office of Community Food Systems (OCFS). Additional funding for the Farm to School Grant Program was made available through the FY 2018 and FY 2019 Agricultural appropriations and, as a result, up to $10 million will be awarded under this solicitation.</p> <p>Designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools, grants can help new farm to school programs get started or expand existing efforts. Grants are intended as one‐time infusions of funds to help grantees accomplish farm to school objectives that will be sustained in the long term. Funds support a wide range of activities from training, planning, and developing partnerships, to creating new menu items, establishing supply chains, offering taste tests to children, purchasing equipment, planting school gardens, and organizing field trips to agricultural operations. FNS will competitively award grants to eligible applicants for projects that meet the purpose of the grant program. In the FY 2019 application and award cycle, FNS received 229 eligible applications and funded 126 (55 percent) of the applications. To be competitive, applications must be complete and of high quality.</p> <p>According to the NSLA, selected grant projects will be awarded no more than $100,000 each. There are three funding tracks available for FY 2020: Farm to School Planning grants, Implementation grants, and State Agency grants (new). Schools, school districts, Indian Tribal Organizations, producers, and nonprofit organizations that have received Implementation, Training, or Support Service grants through the Farm to School Grant Program in the last three funding cycles (FY 2017, 2018, or FY 2019) are not eligible to apply in FY 2020; however, former Planning grantees may apply for the Farm to School Implementation grant after the active Planning grant has been completely closed out. State agencies that received a Farm to School Grant in any prior year are eligible to apply for the State Agency track in FY 2020, and State agencies with active farm to school projects may still apply to the State Agency grant track. Eligible applicants who received an award in a fiscal year prior to 2017 are encouraged to propose projects that differ from previous awards to the same applicant organization. A 25 percent cash or in‐kind funding match is required to receive a Farm to School Grant award. Please refer to the FY 2020 Highlights and Changes page in this RFA for more information regarding updates to this funding opportunity.</p>