The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA) (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) 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 the USDA Food and Nutrition (FNS) Child Nutrition Programs, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
Designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools, grants can launch new farm to school programs or expand existing efforts. Funds support a wide range of activities, including training, planning, creating new menu items to serve local foods, establishing supply chains, hosting taste tests, purchasing equipment, planting school gardens, and organizing field trips to agricultural operations.
In FY2023, this program offers five grant tracks:
- Implementation grants - Improve access to local foods in eligible schools through comprehensive farm to school programming that includes local procurement and agricultural education efforts. Applicants must clearly indicate in their proposal narrative how proposed activities align with the required objective. Implementation Grants ($100,000 or less) period of performance is 12 or 24 months, implementation Grants (greater than $100,000) period of performance is 24 months only. If an entity applies for an Implementation grant in excess of $100,000 up to $500,000, the applicant must clearly indicate the national or multi-State scope of its project in the application materials. If FNS cannot verify the national or multi-State scope based on the information contained in the application materials, the application may be removed from consideration.
- State Agency grants - Improve access to local foods in eligible schools through comprehensive farm to school programming that includes local procurement and agricultural education efforts. Award Amount from $50,000 - $500,000. Period of performance is 12 or 24 months.
- Turnkey – Action Planning grants - Develop a Farm to School Action Plan to facilitate launching or scaling farm to school activities. Award amount up to $50,000. Period of performance is 12 months only.
- Turnkey –Agricultural Education grants - Plan, implement, and evaluate the integration of farm to school topics into school, childcare, and/or summer site curriculum. Award amount up to $50,000. Period of performance is 12 or 24 months.
- Turnkey – Edible Garden grants - Plan, implement, and evaluate a food production operation that produces food for school, childcare, and/or summer site activities. Award amount up to $50,000. Period of performance is 12 or 24 months.
Beginning in the 2020-2021 School year, the Farm to School Grant Program will be supporting 159 grants, serving 7,610 schools and more than 2.5 million students. Over 57 percent of the children served in participating schools are eligible for free and reduced price meals. You can learn more about FY20 grant projects and the great work being done by visiting https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/FY2020%20Grantees%20List.pdf
The NSLA also directs the Secretary to ensure geographical diversity and equitable treatment of urban, rural, and tribal communities in the distribution of grant awards, as well as give the highest priority to funding projects that, as determined by the Secretary: