Food for Education

The Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service Food for Education administers federal grants that support international school feeding programs and agricultural market development, funding non-governmental organizations, international bodies, and U.S. agricultural promotion councils to expand food assistance and U.S. agricultural exports in developing countries.

The Food for Education program has obligated $3.85 billion in federal grant funding across 302 awards since 2013, with highly volatile recent activity: 18 awards in 2022, 9 in 2023, 138 in 2024, 14 in 2025, and 55 year-to-date in 2026. The most recent grant award closed on April 30, 2026. The program operates through 92 distinct grant recipients, a fragmented recipient base in which the top five recipients account for 14 percent of recent awards and 14 percent of recent federal dollars obligated. Over the last five years, the United Nations World Food Programme leads by award count (11 awards, $247 million federal dollars obligated) and by combined federal dollars, followed by Catholic Relief Services–United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (10 awards, $167.1 million). The next tier includes Food Export USA–Northeast ($58.5 million across 3 awards), Wine Institute ($44 million across 3 awards), and U.S. Wheat Associates, Inc. ($41.6 million across 3 awards). The remaining 87 recipients hold smaller grant portfolios individually and collectively, reflecting a long tail of agricultural exporters, commodity boards, and smaller NGOs.

The program structures assistance almost exclusively through Cooperative Agreements (300 awards, 99 percent of the portfolio), with only 2 Project Grants awarded across the entire history. This cooperative-agreement–heavy model reflects the Food for Education program's reliance on implementing partners to execute overseas school feeding and agricultural market-development activities in partnership with the Foreign Agricultural Service.

No recent contract opportunities or grant opportunities are recorded against the agency or its descendant offices in the source data. Prospective applicants should monitor USDA's grant-opportunity portal and the Foreign Agricultural Service website for notices of funding opportunity as the program renews cycles.