USDA offers $12.1 million in record Farm to School grant awards
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving $12.1 million in Farm to School grants — the most awarded since the annual program began in 2013.
There will be 159 recipients, the most projects ever funded, according to a news release. The program is designed to help farmers and increase fresh, local food in schools, childcare centers and summer-meal sites.
The projects will serve more than 7,610 schools and 2.5 million students, according to the release.
The 2020 grant recipients include:
- $52,514 for the Sidney Central School District in New York to increase procurement of locally sourced produce for breakfast and lunch service and develop recipes aligned with New York State seasonality;
- $100,000 for the Arizona Sustainability Alliance, Tempe, Ariz., to support six schools in the Alhambra Elementary School District in creating and maintaining a vertical farm and farmers market to provide about 5,300 students with fresh produce;
- $98,884 for Fiery Ginger Farm, West Sacramento, Calif., to deliver nutrition and food production lessons to 90 classrooms, host field trips, conduct lunchtime taste tests, hold school-garden coordinator trainings and provide plants to gardens;
- $26,325 for the BloominThyme Collaborative Inc., Leesburg, Fla., to develop a plan for procuring local produce for K-8 school cafeterias, installing school gardens for harvest tastings and providing nutrition education with recipes for students’ families;
- $100,000 for the Sterling Community Unit School District in Illinois to create a school greenhouse garden to supply the foodservice program, hire an agricultural educator and conduct a nutrition-based cooking class; and
- $50,000 for EarthDance, a nonprofit farm in Ferguson, Mo., to develop a plan to supply produce to Ferguson-Florissant School District schools, help create an agri-culinary program and assess the baseline use and potential of existing school gardens.
