School Nutrition Training Grants

These awards will be made via the Supporting the Use of Traditional Indigenous Foods in the Child Nutrition Programs Cooperative Agreement to provide regionally focused training and technical assistance (TA) to school nutrition professionals on procu

School Nutrition Training Grants funds will assist allied professional organizations in planning, developing, delivering, and evaluating a workforce development and training initiative to provide skills-based training and technical assistance for school nutrition professionals to strengthen school meals program operators' competencies, knowledge, and skills within key functional areas related to school nutrition. Training activities performed under this grant must meet the following objective: • To plan, develop, deliver, and evaluate job skills-based training and workforce development that is free-of-charge for a broad array of school nutrition professionals to strengthen operator competencies, knowledge, and skills related to any of the key functional areas.

Entity must be one of the following entity types: • 501(c)(3) non-profit organization • SFA that participates in NSLP • Tribal government owned entity, arm, or instrumentality • Native Hawaiian Organization as recognized by the Department of the Interior • Other non-governmental entity including Tribal Colleges & Universities • Fiscal sponsor of any of the above eligible organizations AND B) The leadership and staff of the entity must be predominantly (more than 50%) members of Federally Recognized Tribes and/or Native Hawaiians. (In the case of a fiscal sponsorship, this provision applies to the fiscally sponsored entity. In the case of partnerships, this provision applies to the Lead Applicant, but the Lead Applicant may have non-qualifying partners). AND C) The entity must demonstrate existing relationships, experience and expertise in training, TA, school nutrition, Indigenous foods, and nutrition education.

Grant funds will ultimately benefit school food service program staff, school nutrition personnel, school nutrition professionals, school nutrition employees, school nutrition directors, school nutrition managers/supervisors, front-line staff through a job-skills and workforce development training.

School Nutrition Training Grant for Allied Professional Organizations funds will assist allied professional organizations in planning, developing, promoting, delivering, and evaluating a workforce development and training initiative to provide skills-based training and technical assistance for school nutrition professionals to strengthen school meals program operators' competencies, knowledge, and skills.

Funds cannot be used for the following: 18 Form RFA 01-23 • Staff wellness activities outside of the scope described in this RFA (e.g., physical activity, meditation, blood pressure monitoring). • Classes that are designed to provide case management or "life skills" training such as classes on English as a second language, parenting, child development, and crisis management. • Nutrition education related to dietary needs of individuals, specific disease states, or altered physiological states. • Weight loss classes specific to individuals, individualized meal plans, or obesity treatment programs. • Body Mass Index "Report Cards" programs. • Health screenings. • Backpack programs. • Nutrition education for preschoolers.

FNS will pre-screen all applications to ensure the applicants are eligible entities and are in compliance with all Program regulations. FNS will not approve any waivers from Program regulations for any projects submitted in response to this solicitation. A total of 6 criteria will be used to evaluate applications for this RFA. Each criterion has a maximum score. Scores will be impacted if an application does not include all required information. Total possible points for scoring are 100.

Competitive grants will be reviewed by a technical review panel comprised of USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) staff which convenes to determine the technical merit of each grant application, provide a numerical score for each application, and make recommendations to selecting officials.

Program no longer accepting applications.

Competitive grants will be reviewed by a technical review panel comprised of USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) staff which convenes to determine the technical merit of each grant application, provide a numerical score for each application, and make recommendations to selecting officials.

FNS is responsible for addressing any appeals.