FY 2021 Farm to School Grants

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>Designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools, these grants can help new farm to school programs get started or expand existing efforts. These 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 2020 application and award cycle, FNS received 204 eligible applications and funded 159 (78 percent) of the applications.</p> <p>The following eligible entities, which are described in more detail below:<br>• Institutions, including schools, school districts, and non-school based sites, that operate the National School Lunch and/or Breakfast Program(s), CACFP, and/or SFSP. On the coversheet, any applicant to whom this definition applies should select “Eligible school” for entity type;<br>• State agencies;<br>• Local agencies;<br>• Indian tribal organizations;<br>• Agricultural producers or groups of agricultural producers; and<br>• Non-profit entities.</p>