Farm to School Grant Program

The Farm to School program exists in order to assist eligible entities, through grants and technical assistance, in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods in the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Child Nutrition P

The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program has three requests for applications: Implementation, State Agency, and Turnkey. Implementation grants are intended to help schools or school districts, local agencies, Indian tribal organizations, agricultural producers or groups of agricultural producers, and non-profit entities scale or further develop existing farm to school initiatives. State Agency grants are intended for State agencies to increase the amount of local food served in eligible schools by funding State agencies to support and grow farm to school efforts in their states. Turnkey grants include multiple project choices and simplified application requirements, so eligible entities may more easily access funding for popular or FNS-priority activities.

State Agencies, local agencies, Indian Tribal Organizations, small- and medium-sized agricultural/groups of agricultural producers, schools/school districts, Institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and/or Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), and non-profit entities (excluding institutions of higher education and hospitals) may apply for the Farm to School Grant.

Eligible entities, and therefore beneficiaries, include schools/school districts, institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and/or Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Indian Tribal Organizations, non-profit organizations, producer and producer groups and State and local agencies.

Assistance in improving access to local foods in eligible schools can take the form of: (i) Training; (ii) Supporting operations; (iii) Planning; (iv) Purchasing equipment; (v) Developing school gardens; (vi) Developing partnerships; and (vii) Implementing farm to school programs.

Food is an unallowable cost unless used in taste testing. All costs must be reasonable, necessary and allocable.

Implementation grants will be awarded for 24-month period with an expected start date at/or near early July. Method of awarding/releasing assistance is by letter of credit.

Criteria for selecting Farm to School Grant proposals is detailed in the NOFO and includes degree to which the project serves a school or school district with a high percentage of free and reduced price meal enrollment; need, readiness and likelihood of success; alignment with farm to school program goals; project design and management; sustainability and transferability; and appropriateness of budget plan.

All applications that are submitted by the published deadline will be screened for completeness and conformity to the requirements as announced in the RFA package. Grants are awarded by a competitive process via a review panel composed of trained external, FNS, and other Federal staff that will determine the technical merit of each grant application, provide a numerical score, and make recommendations to the selecting official.

There were several grant tracks and the application deadline varied by track. Refer to the NOFO for each.

A grantee (awarded applicant) may apply for a one time six month no cost extension should they have a bonafide need.

Applicants can submit appeals directly to the Grant Officer using the contact information provided in the request for application.