CTR079048_Contractor_Response.pdf

communityfoodbank.org

3003 S Country Club Rd| Tucson, AZ 85713

(520) 622-0525

Serving Southern Arizona since 1976

Member: Association of Arizona Food

Banks

A proposal to Arizona Department of Education Arizona Farm to School Assistance and Services

Table of Contents RFGA No. BPM007053

TITLE Page

ATTACHMENT 1, GRANT APPLICATION…………………………………………………..…..2

ATTACHMENT 2, APPLICANT INFORMATION ……………………...…………..……….…3

ATTACHMENT 3, NARRATIVE RESPONSE TO SCOPE OF WORK………………….…..4

ATTACHMENT 4, EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY……….…………..…………………….9

ATTACHMENT 5, PROPOSED COST AND BUDGET………………………………………14

ATTACHMENT 6, DEVIATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS….…………………………………...17

ATTACHMENT 7, CONFIDENTIALITY/PROPRIETARY SUBMITTALS..………………. 18

ATTACHMENT 8, DESIGNATION OF CONFIDENTIAL, TRADE SECRET AND

PROPRIETARY INFORMATION.…………………………………………19

ATTACHMENT 9, PARTICIPATION IN BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL………………….…….… 21

ATTACHMENT 10, FORCE LABOR OF ETHNIC UYGURS BAN……………………….. 22

EXHIBIT 1: CERTIFICATE OF LIABILITY INSURANCE…………………………….………23

SOLICITATION AMENDMENT NO. 1………………………………………………………….24

SOLICITATION AMENDMENT NO. 2………………………………………………………….25

OTHER ATTACHMENTS:

1. Audra Christophel Resumé…………………………………………………….…… 26

2. Claudio Rodríguez Resumé…………………………………………………….…… 27

3. Emmanuel Morales Resumé……………………………………………………

4. Brandon Merchant Resumé…………………………………………..…………

ATTACHMENT 2

APPLICANT INFORMATION

RFGA NO.: BPM007053

1.1. Notices, Correspondence, Reports from the ADE to the Grantee shall be sent to:

Organization: Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Attention: Nadia Khatib

Street Address:_3003 S. Country Club Rd

City, State and Zip Code: Tucson, AZ 85713

Telephone: 520-882-3311

E-Mail: grants@communityfoodbank.org

1.2. Payments from ADE to the Grantee shall be sent to:

Organization: Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Attention: Natalie Jayroe

Street Address:_3003 S. Country Club Rd

City, State and Zip Code: Tucson, AZ 85713

Telephone: 520-449-8343

E-Mail: grants@communityfoodbank.org

ATTACHMENT 3

NARRATIVE RESPONSE TO SCOPE OF WORK

RFGA NO.: BPM007053

ATTACHMENT 3

NARRATIVE RESPONSE TO SCOPE OF WORK

I. NARRATIVE RESPONSE TO THE SCOPE OF WORK

The Applicant shall provide substantive information about the service or assistance program and its implementation to align with the scope of work. The narrative shall provide a clear and concise description of the service or assistance to be provided, including the target population(s), and/or geographic area(s) to be served.

1. Describe a service or assistance program plan that will:

a. Increase local purchasing capacity for schools and institutions operating Child Nutrition

Programs; and/or

b. Provide local food promotional activities and/or nutrition and agriculture education for participating children in CNPs; and/or

c. Strengthen connections and integration of Farm to School and ECE activities statewide.

Include what needs to exist and what is already in place for the service or assistance plan that ensures it will be successfully implemented to benefit multiple entities and/or communities.

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona (CFB) has a long history of working to meet community food needs through school gardens, garden and agricultural education and collaborative local food procurement. Since 1976, CFB has provided southern Arizona with a multitude of food-related programs including: The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) for seniors, Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Child Nutrition Programs (CNP), Farm to School (F2S), culinary skills training, assistance with SNAP & AHCCCS (AZ Medicaid) benefits, health and nutrition education, community gardens and garden education, farmers’ market, local food systems development initiatives, youth leadership, and food policy advocacy. CFB serves nearly 200,000 people over 23,000 square miles and five counties in southern Arizona, including Pima, Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, and Santa Cruz. We work with over 300 community partner agencies in our service area. Our mission is to ensure our communities are healthy and hunger-free today, tomorrow and always. This project will build on CFB’s success in expanding nutrition, garden and agriculture education in schools in our service area and expanding school districts’ capacity to purchase locally grown produce to improve children's health and nutrition and expand market opportunities for local farmers.

CFB’s Farm to School (F2S) Program began in 2010 with its first school garden project at Manzo Elementary School in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) after receiving an endowment grant. In 2012, CFB received a USDA Farm to School grant, enabling this project to quickly grow to 11 schools across TUSD and the San Xavier Tribal School District. The successful growth of our F2S program spurred interest and excitement in school gardens, motivating other local school districts to invest in establishing gardens and local food procurement. In 2018, Claudio Rodríguez, then garden education coordinator, established a partnership with Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD), a district in south Tucson, to develop school gardens. In 2020, Brandon Merchant took over this work and expanded our school gardens to 15 schools across SUSD. He currently works closely with 5 schools and 5

ATTACHMENT 4

EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY

teachers in SUSD to maintain and improve the gardens and provide garden and agriculture education. He works with teachers to enhance students’ learning experience by helping students understand the link between food, nutrition, food production and cooking healthy, nutritious meals using food that is planted and harvested from school gardens. For example, one of these partnerships is with Anna Lawrie, an agricultural science teacher at Desert View High School in the SUSD, to develop curriculum for her classes. Brandon also provides instruction for five of her classes, both in the classroom where the focus is on key concepts in urban agriculture and food justice, and in the school garden and greenhouse, where students apply those lessons in real-world contexts. Over the past three years, they have refined and implemented a curriculum framework that strengthens the connection between classroom learning and hands-on garden experiences. Students who participate in the hands-on activities in school gardens not only increase their student engagement, but they also share what they learn and their excitement about agriculture and nutrition with their families.

Over the last 15 years, CFB has become a local leader in forming partnerships and collaborating with over 50 schools across 4 districts to expand its F2S program and building education garden spaces where students learn to grow fruits and vegetables in a garden and agricultural science curriculum. By cultivating healthier environments and providing quality educational opportunities for youth, we create lasting, positive impacts for our communities. We also build a network of multigenerational community gardeners and improve our local food system by expanding access to fresh, locally grown produce. We plan to expand our reach with a train-the-trainer model to provide instructional development, curriculum, and support for teachers in other school districts across southern Arizona.

CFB has also been a leader in building a regional food value chain and strengthening this ecosystem for over a decade. CFB’s Farm-to-Institution (F2I) value chain initiative was established in 2014 to create a collaborative network of regional family farms, institutional buyers, and local food distributors working together to strengthen our regional food system. The aim of F2I was to create structural changes in our food system by expanding markets and economic opportunities for farmers and partners for equitable food procurement at the institutional level across southern Arizona. F2I partners (farmers, organizations and businesses) collaborate to increase access to locally grown food, develop wholesale market opportunities for farmers, and build the processes and relationships necessary to build capacity for local purchasing by partner institutions. Over the years, TUSD has been a key partner in working through the challenges of local food procurement and capacity building in schools. In the last several years, we have applied those lessons learned to work with SUSD, Continental Ranch Elementary School District, and Marana Unified School District to pilot local food planning and purchasing efforts. In the last two years, we have also supported our farm partners in rural areas to build connections, creating a direct farm-to-district distribution model for the food they grow. This is especially important for rural districts that are often smaller in size, and aggregation and distribution from the larger urban core is oftentimes not financially feasible.

Farmers have had some limited success with this model. In 2023, we added Continental Ranch as a purchase partner on a pilot program basis. Ongoing conversations with Sunnyside, Marana, Nogales, and other school districts illustrate the barriers to local purchasing that school districts face. Several common barriers include, 1) a limiting bidding process, where the district only has one bid for all produce; 2) the school district outsources food service to a company that has less incentive and/or interest in sourcing local produce; 3) the district has no central food service location, requiring a high level of logistical support to deliver small quantities of local produce directly to school site locations; and 4) food service staff have limited knowledge of local produce varieties and seasonality, resulting in barriers to include items on pre-planned menus. Overcoming these challenging barriers requires creativity and trust-based partnerships.

We work closely with our partner, Pivot to Local Foundation, to support school districts in changing internal systems and policies to build their capacity to purchase local food products.

Our F2I network has 11 years’ experience working together to collectively plan and plant to meet the product needs of institutional buyers. We have developed planning processes, systems, and partnerships to successfully support other schools and districts to initiate local purchasing pilots and expansions. Our partner Pivot to Local facilitates the process by lending expertise in aggregation and distribution to school districts. The second component of our program plan is to build on the relationships we have fostered with new schools and districts through the school garden education training offered to build purchasing capacity and the opportunity to engage in local purchasing pilots through our F2I initiative. While we continue to broaden our network of school partners, funding from this grant will enable us to expand our capacity-building work with new school districts to create new local buying partnerships.

2. Detail the expected reach of the service or assistance program. Include a timeline or framework, if known or established.

CFB’s F2S program, (school gardens and garden education), was established with the goal of developing teachers as garden experts, using school gardens as tools to enhance nutrition education, increase access to fresh produce, teach students where their food comes from, how to grow food, and provide insights into the larger food system. The school garden program centers on building the capacity of educators and community members to maintain their gardens and use them as educational spaces and entry points across curriculum. Over the past 13 years, the program has supported the development and implementation of 114 school and community gardens and delivered over 1,000 hours of professional development training across our 5-county service area. While our current focus is SUSD, our work has also reached rural areas of Cochise County (Willcox), the Amphitheater, Flowing Wells, and Marana Unified School Districts. We will build on the school garden training component to access new schools and establish district partnerships.

CFB will deliver a scalable F2S program that provides K-12 educators with practical, classroom-ready resources to integrate health, nutrition, garden and agriculture science education into schools across our service area. Our plan centers on offering teacher summits using the Train-the-Trainer model during the grant period for approximately 20-25 teachers that will equip them with new pedagogical skills and instructional materials to integrate garden-based learning, health and nutrition and local food promotion into their existing curriculum. We will build teacher capacity by developing a digital resource hub to archive instructional materials and resources for access by educators, schools and the public. These resources will complement child nutrition program (CNP) efforts by helping schools highlight local foods and connect classroom lessons with broader healthy eating information and practices. The program builds on our existing strengths: long-standing partnerships with schools and districts, staff expertise in garden-based education, and agricultural science curriculum, real-world classroom practice and an established network of local farmers, institutions and distributors to increase access to locally grown food.

During the first year of the grant, the program will focus on establishing the foundation for long-term growth by launching the digital resource hub, early outreach efforts to schools and school districts and planning and hosting teacher summits. Our team will hold 4 teacher summits, using the train-the-trainer model, for 20-25 participants in each Summit. To encourage attendance and participation, participants will receive a $100 incentive to offset their travel and time to attend the Summit. We anticipate directly training approximately 80-100 K-12 educators, representing 8-12 schools across our service area. Participating educators will gain practical skills and resources to integrate nutrition and agriculture education into existing curriculum using Life Lab curricular materials that include science, math, social studies, agriculture, art, and writing with an indirect reach to several hundred students. All materials produced from the Summits will be archived in a digital resource hub on a platform such as DSpace, Fedora or Internet Archive that can be linked to CFB’s website for public access by K-12 educators, students, schools, and other non-profits across Arizona and beyond.

The program timeline will follow a phased framework:

• Phase 1 (months 1-6): Recruit K-12 educators, co-develop core modules and prepare instructional materials and lesson plans.

• Phase 2 (months 6-12): Delivery of four train-the-trainer workshops, building the digital archive/resource hub, and onboarding educators onto the hub and begin outreach to additional schools.

• Phase 3 (year 2 and beyond): Expansion of the digital archive content, continued workshops, and broader dissemination of resources across rural and urban districts, evaluation of program informed by educator feedback and pre and post workshop survey data.

This timeline assumes a more modest reach during the one-year grant period while building a strong and scalable foundation that will allow for steady growth in future years as the digital resource hub (archive) becomes established and demand increases.

Capacity building for local food purchasing will focus on two components: 1) working with current school district partners to expand capacity-building and work toward pilot purchasing for spring of 2026 and/or fall of 2027, and 2) building new relationships with schools across our serv schools typically begin with listening sessions to understand the specific barriers they face in local procurement based on the way their food service department currently operates and identify actionable steps to adapt internal processes to allow for local food purchasing.

During the grant period, our goal is to complete at least 3 pilot purchasing initiatives with schools not currently purchasing any local products, and to provide initial capacity building support for an additional 5-8 schools. We will accomplish this in collaboration with our long-time partner Pivot to Local Foundation, which plays a key role in facilitating aggregation and delivery logistics for school districts across the state, and currently holds a contract to supply local produce to TUSD, our long-time purchasing partner.

3.Identify the expected impact or result of the service or assistance.

The expected impact of this program will be a measurable increase in the number of educators who feel confident and prepared to integrate a garden and agriculture-based curriculum and health and nutrition education into their classrooms. By providing accessible resources and professional development, teachers across our five-county service area will be better equipped to sustain or initiate school garden activities, connect students to locally grown foods, and strengthen the alignment between classroom education and child nutrition program goals. In the short term, we expect to see stronger teacher engagement with garden and agriculture-based curriculum and the adoption of ready-to-use lessons in classrooms. Over time, these efforts will lead to broader awareness of healthy eating among students, increased visibility of local food in schools, and stronger collaboration between educators, food service staff, and community partners. The long-term result is a more resilient and connected farm to school network that benefits multiple districts and communities across southern Arizona.

To increase procurement from local Arizona farmers, we plan to:

• Partner with 3 schools/school districts to pilot local food purchases by fall of 2026

• Hold at least 5 exploratory conversations with new schools/districts by May 2026 to assess existing local purchasing barriers to become a procurement partner.

• Continue meeting with 5-8 schools over the course of the grant period to identify existing barriers to local purchasing and collaborate on solutions to adopt new processes and system adaptations to facilitate their ability to purchase local agricultural products.

• Document existing barriers, actions taken, successful process adaptations, and lessons learned.

4. Outline tools to be used and methods planned for measuring the results/outcomes and evaluation activities.

Evaluation will combine both quantitative and qualitative tools to measure the reach and effectiveness of the program. For in-person and virtual instruction, we will track participation through registration records, giving us the number of educators, schools, and districts represented. We will distribute and collect pre and post Summit from teacher participants to gauge the knowledge learned or gained, educational experience, and value of the professional development workshops (Summits). This qualitative approach ensures that our assessment tools, pre and post workshop surveys, not only captures participants’ experiences, but also the likelihood of the practical use of the resources we provide to support the expansion of our F2S and F2I to improve child nutrition in schools by expanding access to educational opportunities on planting, growing and eating healthy nutritious food and farmers’ access to a reliable market for their produce.

The digital resource hub (archive), to be created using DSpace, Fedora or an Internet Archive, will include basic analytics to capture metrics such as logins, downloads, and page views, allowing us to monitor engagement over time. Together these tools will provide a clear picture of both the direct reach (teachers trained, schools served, resources assessed) and the indirect reach (students engaged and resources shared within schools).

To measure the impact of expanding conversations, outreach and onboarding of new schools and school districts as procurement partners with local farmers, we will capture metrics on 1) The number of exploratory conversations held with schools and school districts; 2) The number of hours of capacity-building support provided to schools and school districts during the grant period; 3) The existing barriers to local purchasing school districts; 4) the number and type of successful system or process changes implemented that facilitate local purchasing; and 5) the number of school districts that complete trial purchasing initiatives, including farmer sales data.

From a qualitative perspective, we will capture stories that illuminate any successes within district as well as lessons learned to share with our F2S network, AZDOE, and other school districts across the state.

5. Outline how the proposed services/assistance plans, and anticipated results can be shared to benefit the public and Arizona’s Farm to School/ECE community.

We share our work through educational opportunities to build capacity and leadership among participating farmers. CFB coordinates peer-to-peer learning workshops that allow farmers and/or institutional partners to share expertise, best practices, and lessons learned with one another. These workshops help institutional buyers, particularly school districts, navigate the food procurement process. Farmers gain technical assistance, valuable information, and market data on institutional demand, which helps them plan crop production and adapt to buyer needs.

The proposed services and results will be shared broadly to ensure they benefit not only our direct partners but also the wider farm to school and early childcare education (ECE) community across Arizona. The digital resource hub (archive) will be publicly accessible, allowing any educator, school, or early childcare provider to use the materials regardless of location.

Resources will be designed for easy adaptation so schools with different levels of capacity can implement them in ways that fit their context. In addition, results and lessons learned can be shared through statewide networks and convenings, such as the Arizona farm to school network’s monthly “community of practice” calls and other professional conferences and AZDOE partner events. We will also provide virtual workshops and webinars making professional development accessible to educators in rural and urban settings alike. By ensuring that our resources, training opportunities, and evaluation findings are openly available, the program will contribute to a stronger, more connected farm to school community statewide and support long-term integration of agriculture and nutrition education in Arizona schools.

Additionally, we are currently working with Pivot Produce and our ongoing F2I partners to complete a year-long comprehensive evaluation of the last 10 years of our F2I initiative.

Through these efforts, we will produce a report and a toolkit designed to support other organizations, farms, and schools across the state in their efforts to streamline learning and implementation of collaborative local purchasing efforts.

II. EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY

The Applicant shall describe how their organization is positioned to address the current issues or barriers to advancing farm to school programming amongst producers, food hubs, distributors, schools, and early care institutions.

6. Describe the applicant’s experience in designing and/or delivering effective evidence-based programming around your proposed service or assistance program.

All CFB’s community development programs are designed, created, evaluated, and implemented in partnership with community stakeholders and partners. We respond to community needs by cultivating deep relationships with partners and community members across sectors. We build trust by convening conversations to uncover and address self-identified needs, barriers, and opportunities to collectively build programs and systems that center the needs and lived experiences of individuals and communities most impacted. For example, the local farmers in our network actively participate in planning crops that work for their land area, micro-climate and labor resources. Using cooperative practices for competitive advantage, farmers in our network aggregate products for sale to institutions via CFB, thus achieving volume and risk mitigation. For the last 11 years, farmers in our network have worked together to collective plan and plant to meet the produce needs of institutional buyers (university, school districts and other community organizations). Our distribution partner, Pivot to Local, has facilitated the aggregation and distribution to various buyers. Utilizing this truly collaborative community development model includes regularly convening partners to check in on progress and goals and being responsive to changing needs, external context, and unexpected challenges allows for greater adaptability and long-term success. This is reflected in the success of CFB’s F2I value chain initiative which demonstrates our experience and capacity to design and deliver effective programming. In its first year in 2015, we successfully facilitated $33k in local farm sales to community institutions. By 2025, farmers had secured nearly $700k in advance contracts to supply community institutions for the year.

7. Describe the applicant’s experience and strategies in working effectively with the population your service or assistance intends to reach.

Since 2014, CFB has coordinated an F2I value chain that centers local farmers’ voice, who play a vital role in leadership and decision-making within the food production and distribution system.

Our long-standing work with low-income communities has uniquely positioned us to secure new funding to sustain our partnerships, expand local food procurement, and increase access to fresh, locally grown produce. Over the past decade, we have collaborated with various community organizations and agencies, including TUSD, the University of Arizona, and the Food Conspiracy Coop. Currently, our farm network includes diverse growers, with 66% of farms owned by farmers who have limited income and little access to funding and large markets, seven institutional buyers, a distribution partner that bridges the gap between buyers and farms, and the Pima County Food Alliance, which advocates for policy changes at the local level. As value chain coordinator, CFB supports all partner activities and supervises financial management and reporting.

Our partnerships are central to our work and drive efforts to transform the regional food value chain. We aim to create a more equitable system by helping farmers navigate food procurement systems, expand markets for their products, and increase their income. As value-chain coordinator, CFB has strengthened partner relationships, explored and developed new partnerships, and deepened understanding and collaboration across sectors—farmers, institutional buyers, and distributor Pivot-to-Local. This deeply collaborative network has gone a long way to change systems by building strong, transformational relationships. Given our longstanding experience in forming successful partnerships, funding from the AZ Farm to School Assistance and Services grant will enable us to continue this work and expand our F2S and F2I programs to school districts more rural areas in our 5-county service area, which have limited access to grocery stores and fresh produce from farms due to the lack of transportation infrastructure, markets and institutional buyers.

Our F2S, i.e., school gardens, team also place a strong emphasis on community involvement including students, parents, school staff and community members and gathers feedback from these groups to ensure that the values, cultures and needs of the community are represented in the food, services and resources we provide. We have built long-lasting, meaningful relationships by providing the knowledge, resources, technical assistance and education for teachers, staff, and community through open dialogue about the types of foods, topics and subjects they want for their families and communities to ensure we meet their needs. This is evidenced by CFB’s F2S staff’s longtime work with schools in establishing and maintaining school gardens, garden education and agricultural science curriculum at Desert View High School, Sunnyside High School, Challenger Middle School in the SUSD and other schools in the TUSD.

8. Describe the qualifications, experience working with the proposed population, and previous experience with the types of services to be provided for each of the Key Personnel listed on Key Personnel Table of question 10. Applicant shall attach a resume for each of the key personnel proposed. Resumes or curriculum vitae (CV) that includes personal information such as home address, phone numbers, social security numbers, etc., should be redacted as documentation will become public information after award of a contract.

CFB’s team and its leadership is comprised of knowledgeable and dedicated staff who provide leadership and expertise for CFB programs, teachers, community members and community organizations. Our key personnel for this project will be led by Audra Christophel, Vice President of Community Development, who brings 16 years of experience in regional food systems development, and leadership in community development programming across southern Arizona.

She has been instrumental in leading the development of our F2I value chain initiative, including the creation of the Abundant Harvest farmers collective to increase wholesale market opportunities for regional farmers. In her current role, she cultivates and supports CFB’s partner ecosystem and convenes cross-sectors partners to collaboratively build the vision, trust, and systems needed to bridge gaps in the current food system.

Claudio Rodríguez, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, will provide the general oversight of the project. Claudio, a native Tucsonan and fluent Spanish-speaker, has fifteen years of school garden, environmental and social justice community education, and community organizing around food production, food justice and food policy advocacy and youth leadership development. He served as CFB’s school garden coordinator from 2013 to 2018 and worked with teachers and schools to design and implement community gardens, school garden programming and health and nutrition curriculum. From 2018-2021 he managed the Farm to Child programs and developed food justice events and Train-the-Trainer programs focusing on garden installation, garden education curriculum and technical assistance for educators and community members. In these roles, Claudio established three dozen school garden programs across Tucson. This experience equips him with the expertise to oversee CFB’s Farm to School (F2S) team and provide guidance, technical support, and leadership for this project and lend support in building relationships with new schools and facilitating at the teacher summits.

Emmanuel Morales Avila, our Community Development Manager, brings extensive community outreach, and grassroots organizing experience with local organizations around food systems, harvesting, local food economies, and cultivating partnerships. He will provide support with facilitating communications and collaborations with local agencies and organizations and with community development programming to expand our network of F2I partners. His talents also include being bilingual in English and Spanish, a researcher, field ethnographic videographer and ethnographer, which will serve him well in relationship building with community members and potential partners.

Brandon Merchant, CFB’s Garden Education Coordinator, has multiple certifications, including the Pima County Smartscape, Life Lab Garden Educator. and the Pima County Master Gardener Certifications and is a board member for the Native Seeds/SEARCH and former board president of Tucson Organic Gardeners. He currently works with area schools and teachers to develop, establish, and maintain school gardens and coordinates with teachers to provide instruction and educational activities. He provides technical support to teachers and staff by assisting them in integrating lessons on agriculture, planting food, and nutrition into classroom curricula using school gardens. His experience as owner of Southwest Victory Gardens equips him with valuable knowledge and insight in the field of horticulture, sustainable agriculture, wildlife habitats and community education. Since 2012, he has installed over 150 vegetable gardens at homes, schools, and businesses throughout Tucson. His work with teachers at Desert View and Sunnyside High Schools and Challenger Middle School in developing lesson plans and agricultural-centered curriculum draws from Pre-Columbian indigenous agricultural knowledge, world view and practices to provide students with culturally and historically relevant content that reflects the heritage and background of the diverse student populations served by Tucson public schools, equipping him with the skills and expertise to lead the instructional and learning activities for the teacher Summits.

9. Describe two major accomplishments that demonstrate the Applicant’s effectiveness and capacity to provide services or assistance as described in the narrative.

Our collective activities have already helped alleviate barriers for local family-owned farms for increased access to land, resources, and market share. Our work has lowered barriers by establishing a collaborative network between producers, buyers, and support partners that facilitate high volume production and pre-season purchasing commitments, allowing farmers to plan and plant the products and volumes with a guaranteed market. At an institutional level, our partners have created effective policy change from within, particularly with school district-level procurement policies. By connecting local farms with school districts, we provide a predictable, consistent market for their goods. For instance, TUSD in collaboration with CFB, updated their contract bidding policies, revamped their cafeteria menu to align with regional seasonality, and enhanced their nutritional education curricula. This included transitioning TUSD’s one-bid model to include a second tiered-bid, which for the first time allowed a small, local distributor to provide local produce grown by F2I farmers to the district. We then worked with TUSD to extend the bidding period from 1 year to 2 years, giving local farmers additional planning and contracting time. Lastly, in our role as F2I coordinator, CFB provided TUSD staff and students with educational workshops and materials to increase their understanding of the nutritional benefits of locally grown foods, their impact on our local food systems, and the ways farmers steward and protect our shared natural resources. We continue to support new institutions to implement internal policy changes that allow for good food procurement from local family-owned farms.

Over the years we have explored partnerships with other schools and led several successful trials, including with SUSD in 2019 (ended due to the pandemic) and Continental Ranch Elementary School District since 2023. Since 2015, we have increased F2I’s institutional sales from $33k to nearly $700k annually.

10. List all key personnel by name, position and/or title, responsibilities and percentage of time to be assigned to this Grant. Key personnel is defined as staff involved in planning, administration, operation, or monitoring of this Grant.

Key Personnel Table

Full Name Position/Title Responsibilities % Time Assigne d to Grant

Audra Christophel Vice President of Community Development

Lead development of capacity building and partnerships with new schools and school districts in collaboration with Pivot to Local.

5%

Claudio Rodríguez

Vice President of Policy and Advocacy

Support developing, delivering and coordinating Summits (trainings/workshop. Build new relationships with schools & school districts across CFB’s service area.

5%

Brandon Merchant

Garden Education Coordinator

Deliver Capacity building training to teachers and educators around school garden maintenance and education.

Connecting gardens to cafeteria.

50%

Emmanuel Morales

Community Development Manager

Coordinate pilot program planning and implementation with Pivot to Local, school districts, and farm network.

Lead collective annual crop-planning process.

15%

ATTACHMENT 5

PROPOSED COSTS AND BUDGET

III. PROPOSED COSTS AND BUDGET

The Applicant shall provide sufficient detail to outline the costs associated with the service to be provided and explain the relative proportion of costs to the expected reach and impact on the target population.

11. Provide a detailed budget narrative that describes how category costs are derived and justifies the proposed costs over the period of performance for the grant.

PERSONNEL: ($46,065.04) This includes the salaries and wages for 4 staff members with varying allocations from the Farm & Garden and Community Development Teams that are critical for this project. The salary and wage for a regular full-time employee at CFB varies widely based on the position and length of employment.

BENEFITS AND ERE: ($12,437.75) The fringe benefit rate varies by employee depending on the benefits package and options selected. To cover all employee-related expenses and benefits, CFB utilizes a calculated rate of 27% of the employee’s salary to determine employee-related expenses. These expenses include all payroll taxes, FICA, SUTA, health/dental/vision insurance, worker's compensation, retirement fund, etc.

TRAVEL: ($500) There will be no external travel. Travel expenses for this grant are for local travel only for CFB team members/staff to meet with schools and school districts and organizations in our 5-county service area for relationship building and to plan and collaborate on teacher Summits.

SUPPLIES: ($6300) This includes expenses for the following needs:

1. Curriculum materials: ($3600) These include books and instructional materials (Life Lab) for Summit participants (K-12 educators) $45/each x 80 participants

2. Supplies & incidentals: ($200) This includes convening materials (paper, post-it pads, markers, pens, etc.) for the teacher summits

3. Lunch for approximately 80-100 people ($2,500) The team will host 4 Summits during the grant period for 20-25 participants each (including CFB instructors and facilitators). Lunch will be provided for each

Summit ($625/summit x 4 summits).

OTHER PURCHASED SERVICES/PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ($28,000) for the following needs:

1. Contractor Services ($20,000) Pivot to Local Foundation will provide capacity building and logistical support for schools and farm producers to expand capacity and local food purchasing in schools/school districts across our 5-county service area.

2. Teacher professional development incentives/stipends ($8,000), 80 teachers x $100/each

12. Describe the Applicant’s accounting practices, including how expenses will be tracked and reported in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

CFB uses Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT to track all expenses. Our financial system tracks grant expenses and other associated expenditures with accuracy and efficiency to ensure that our grants are spent down through coding protocols that categorize and allocate all grant related expenses to the designated grant account. We run expense reports by grantor code, which separates expenses by grant.

We also run expense reports by grantor code and program code(s), which separates expenses by grant and the program supported. Our two financial grant administrators provide detailed oversight of fund utilization and accurate reporting of expenses budgeted for programs. Additionally, program managers also track program expenses in collaboration with financial grant administrators to ensure that expenses are allocated directly to the grant.

13. Complete the Proposed Costs and Budget table below.

Proposed Costs and Budget Template NOTE: Allowable costs are located at 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E

Equipment with acquisition costs of $10,000 or more is unallowable.

1. PERSONNEL TOTAL $46,065.04 BRIEF EXPLANATION

1a. VP of Community Development (Audra)

$5,683.60 5% FTE or 104 hours

1b. VP of Policy & Advocacy (Claudio)

$5,592.08 5% FTE or 104 hours

1c. Community Development Manager (Emmanuel)

$9,341.28 15% FTE or 312 hours

1e. Garden Education Coordinator (Brandon)

$25,448.80 50% FTE or 1040 hours

1. PERSONNEL-RELATED

EXPENSE/BENEFITS

TOTAL $12,437.75

BRIEF EXPLANATION (Applicant Organization’s fringe benefits policy)

2a. VP of Community Development $1,534.57 27% ERE, includes payroll taxes, FICA, SUTA, and benefits

2b. VP of Policy & Advocacy $1,509.86 27% ERE, includes payroll taxes, FICA, SUTA, and benefits

2c. Community Development Manager

$2,522.15 27% ERE, includes payroll taxes, FICA, SUTA, and benefits

2e. Garden Education Coordinator $6,871.18 27% ERE, includes payroll taxes, FICA, SUTA, and benefits

3. TRAVEL TOTAL $500 BRIEF EXPLANATION

3a. Mileage $500 Mileage reimbursement for local travel to meetings (estimated 700 miles x.70/mile for the year)

3b. Meals & Incidentals $ 0

3c. Lodging $ 0

4. SUPPLIES (Less than or equal to a unit cost of $10,000. TOTAL $6,300 BRIEF EXPLANATION

4a. Curriculum materials $3,600.

Curriculum materials – book and instructional materials (Life Lab) for Summit participants (K-12 educators) $45/each x 80 participants

$4b. Supplies & incidentals $200 Convening materials (paper, post-its, markers, pens, etc.) for teacher summits

4c. Lunch for approximately 80-100 people during Summit

$2,500

The team will host 4 Summits during the year, with 20-25 participants each (including CFB instructors and facilitators. Lunch will be provided for each Summit. $625/summit x 4 summits.

5. OTHER PURCHASED

SERVICES/PROFESSIONAL

SERVICES

TOTAL $28,000 BRIEF EXPLANATION

5a. Contractor Services $20,000 Pivot to Local will provide capacity building and logistical support with schools and farm producers to expand capacity and local food purchasing in schools across Southern Arizona.

5b. Teacher professional development stipends

$8,000 80 teachers X $100/each

6. TOTAL COSTS TOTAL $107,298.33 BRIEF EXPLANATION

6a. Total Direct Costs $ 93,302.79

6b. Total Indirect Cost (if applicant organization has an approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement)

$13,995.54 15% de minimis of total budget

ATTACHMENT 6

DEVIATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS

Solicitation No.: BPM007053

Descri tion: Arizona Farm to chool Assistance and Services

State of Arizona Department of Education

1535 W. Jefferson Street

Phoenix, AZ 85007

Offeror Name: __ C_o_m_m_u_n_i_ty�F�o_od_B_a_n_k_o_f_S_o�u_t_he_r_n_A_ri_zo_n_a _________ _

Offeror shall indicate any and all exceptions taken to the provisions or specifications or scope of work in this solicitation document.

Exceptions (mark one):

X No exceptions

Exceptions taken (describe -attach additional pages if needed)

***Exceptions taken that ADE considers a material change or a large number of exceptions will impact Offeror's susceptibility for award.***

The Undersigned hereby acknowledges that there are no deviations/exceptions to this solicitation other than those noted.:

Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Firm

Authorized

State of Arizona il ATTACHMENT 10 Department of Education

FORCED LABOR OF ETHNIC UYGHURS BAN

1535 W. Jefferson Street

Phoenix, AZ 85007

Solicitation No.: BPM007053 Description: Arizona Farm to School Assistance and Services

Forced Labor of Ethnic Uyghurs Ban

Please note that if ill!Y of the following apply to the Contractor, then the Contractor hall select the "Exempt

Contractor" option below:

• Contractor is a sole proprietorsh.ip;

• Contractor has fewer than ten ( I 0) employees; OR

• ontractor is a non-profit organization.

Pursuant to A.R.S. § 35-394, written certification is required to show that the com pan entering into a contract with a public entity does not use the forced labor, or use any contractors, subcontractors or uppliers that use the forced labor or any goods or services produced by the forced labor or any goods or services produced by the forced labor of ethnic yghurs in the People's Republic of China.

Under A.R.S. § 35-394:

I. "Company" means an organization. association, corporation, partnership, joint venture, limited partnership. limited liability partnership, limited liability company or other entity or business association. including a wholly owned subsidiary, majority-owned subsidiary, parent company or affiliate, that engages in for-profit activity and that has ten or more full-time employees.

2. "Public entity" means this State, a political subdivision of this State or an agency, board, commission or department of this State or a political subdivision of this State.

In compliance with .R.S. § 35-394, all Contractors must select one of the folJowing:

D The Company does not use, and agrees not to use during the term of the contract any of the following:

• Forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People's Republic of China�

• Any goods or services produced by the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People's Republic of

China; or

• Any Contractors, Subcontractors, or suppliers that use the forced labor or any goods or services produced by the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People's Republic of China.

D The Company does participate in the use of Forced Uyghurs Labor as described in A.R.S. § 35-394.

Kl Exempt Contractor: Select all statements that apply to the Contractor:

D Contractor is a sole proprietorship;

D Contractor has fewer than ten (10) employees; and/or

[ii Contractor is a non-profit organization.

Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

Company name

3003 S. Country Club Rd.

Address

Tucson, AZ 85713

City, State, ZIP

JG

Signature of person autbo iud to ign

Natalie Jayroe, Ch"efExecutive Ilic r

Printed name and Title grants@communityfoodbank.org 520-882-3314

Contact email address Contact phone number

SHOULD ANY OF THE ABOVE DESCRIBED POLICIES BE CANCELLED BEFORE

THE EXPIRATION DATE THEREOF, NOTICE WILL BE DELIVERED IN

ACCORDANCE WITH THE POLICY PROVISIONS.

INSURER(S) AFFORDING COVERAGE

INSURER F :

INSURER E :

INSURER D :

INSURER C :

INSURER B :

INSURER A :

NAIC #

NAME:

CONTACT

(A/C, No):

FAX

E-MAIL

ADDRESS:

PRODUCER

(A/C, No, Ext):

PHONE

INSURED

REVISION NUMBER:CERTIFICATE NUMBER:COVERAGES

IMPORTANT: If the certificate holder is an ADDITIONAL INSURED, the policy(ies) must have ADDITIONAL INSURED provisions or be endorsed.

If SUBROGATION IS WAIVED, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy, certain policies may require an endorsement. A statement on this certificate does not confer rights to the certificate holder in lieu of such endorsement(s).

THIS CERTIFICATE IS ISSUED AS A MATTER OF INFORMATION ONLY AND CONFERS NO RIGHTS UPON THE CERTIFICATE HOLDER. THIS CERTIFICATE DOES NOT AFFIRMATIVELY OR NEGATIVELY AMEND, EXTEND OR ALTER THE COVERAGE AFFORDED BY THE POLICIES BELOW. THIS CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CONTRACT BETWEEN THE ISSUING INSURER(S), AUTHORIZED

REPRESENTATIVE OR PRODUCER, AND THE CERTIFICATE HOLDER.

OTHER:

(Per accident)

(Ea accident)

N / A

SUBR

WVD

ADDL

INSD

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE POLICIES OF INSURANCE LISTED BELOW HAVE BEEN ISSUED TO THE INSURED NAMED ABOVE FOR THE POLICY PERIOD INDICATED. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY REQUIREMENT, TERM OR CONDITION OF ANY CONTRACT OR OTHER DOCUMENT WITH RESPECT TO WHICH THIS CERTIFICATE MAY BE ISSUED OR MAY PERTAIN, THE INSURANCE AFFORDED BY THE POLICIES DESCRIBED HEREIN IS SUBJECT TO ALL THE TERMS, EXCLUSIONS AND CONDITIONS OF SUCH POLICIES. LIMITS SHOWN MAY HAVE BEEN REDUCED BY PAID CLAIMS.

$PROPERTY DAMAGE

BODILY INJURY (Per accident)

BODILY INJURY (Per person)

COMBINED SINGLE LIMIT

AUTOS ONLY

AUTOSAUTOS ONLY

NON-OWNED

SCHEDULEDOWNED

ANY AUTO

AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY

Y / N

WORKERS COMPENSATION

AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY

OFFICER/MEMBER EXCLUDED?

(Mandatory in NH)

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS below If yes, describe under

ANY PROPRIETOR/PARTNER/EXECUTIVE

E.L. DISEASE - POLICY LIMIT

E.L. DISEASE - EA EMPLOYEE

E.L. EACH ACCIDENT

ER

OTH-

STATUTE

PER

LIMITS(MM/DD/YYYY)

POLICY EXP

(MM/DD/YYYY)

POLICY EFF

POLICY NUMBERTYPE OF INSURANCELTR

INSR

DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLES (ACORD 101, Additional Remarks Schedule, may be attached if more space is required)

EXCESS LIAB

UMBRELLA LIAB $EACH OCCURRENCE

$AGGREGATE

OCCUR

CLAIMS-MADE

DED RETENTION $

$PRODUCTS - COMP/OP AGG

$GENERAL AGGREGATE

$PERSONAL & ADV INJURY

$MED EXP (Any one person)

$EACH OCCURRENCE

DAMAGE TO RENTED

$PREMISES (Ea occurrence)

COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY

CLAIMS-MADE OCCUR

GEN'L AGGREGATE LIMIT APPLIES PER:

POLICY

PRO-

JECT LOC

CERTIFICATE OF LIABILITY INSURANCE

DATE (MM/DD/YYYY)

CANCELLATION

AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE

ACORD 25 (2016/03)

© 1988-2015 ACORD CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

CERTIFICATE HOLDER

The ACORD name and logo are registered marks of ACORD

HIRED

AUTOS ONLY

8/8/2025

Crest Insurance Group, LLC 5285 E. Williams Circle Suite 4500 Tucson AZ 85711

Diane Walsh 520-784-7635 520-618-3948 diane.walsh@crestins.com

Philadelphia Indemnity Ins Co 18058 COMMFOO-01 CopperPoint Indemnity Insurance Company 13928

Community Food Bank, Inc.

3003 S. Country Club Road Tucson AZ 85713

1243122795

A X 1,000,000 X 100,000

5,000

1,000,000

3,000,000 X

PHPK2575214 7/1/2025 7/1/2026

3,000,000

A 1,000,000

X

X X

PHPK2575214 7/1/2025 7/1/2026

A X X 5,000,000PHUB872180 7/1/2025 7/1/2026

5,000,000 X 10,000

B X1018212-12 7/1/2025 7/1/2026

1,000,000

1,000,000

1,000,000 A Professional Liability

Physical Abuse, Sexual Misconduct

PHPK2575214 7/1/2025 7/1/2026 1,000,000 / 3,000,000

1,000,000 / 3,000,000

Evidence of Insurance. This form is subject to all policy forms, terms, endorsements, conditions definitions & exclusions.

Evidence of Insurance

SOLICITATION

AMENDMENT NO. 1

AZ DEPT OF EDUCATION

1535 W. Jefferson Street

Phœnix, AZ 85007

(602) 364-2517

SOLICITATION NO.: BPM007053

TITLE: Arizona Farm to School Assistance and Services

SOLICITATION DUE: September 3, 2025 TIME (Local Time): 3:00 P.M. MST Contact: LeAnn Wong

*A signed copy of this amendment must be submitted with your Solicitation Response. This Solicitation is amended as follows:

1. Changes have been made…