In partnership with the USDA FNS, the Chef Ann Foundation’s Partnership for Local Agriculture and Nutrition Transformation in Schools “PLANTS” grant supports projects led by groups of local partners with systemic and equity-driven approaches to transforming school food supply chains, in order to build more nourishing, scratch-cooked meal programs.
Donor Name: Chef Ann Foundation
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/21/2024
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Projects should seek to build and strengthen relationships among community-based food system stakeholders and School Food Authorities (SFAs) as well as expand scratch cooking in schools in order to build more nourishing school meal programs
This program is funded by the USDA Food & Nutrition Service Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative and is administered by Chef Ann Foundation in partnership with Kitchen Sync Strategies Collaborative, Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, and National Farm to School Network. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
Objectives
- Build and strengthen relationships among community-based food system stakeholders, such as school food professionals, local farmers, distributors, aggregators, parents, students, and/or other organizations and populations who are impacted by school food supply chains.
- Improve school food supply chain coordination to support the shared values and needs (environmental, economic, regulatory, etc.) of local farmers and other food producers as well as K-12 schools.
- Increase awareness of and access to K-12 markets among small- and mid-scale and historically underserved food producers, aggregators, and processors.
- Expand scratch cooking operations in K-12 schools to both provide more nourishing, high quality, and culturally inclusive meals to students as well as incorporate more local and sustainably produced ingredients into meals.
- Establish a sustainable approach and best practices for improving K-12 school food systems that are scalable and can be adopted by other schools and community stakeholders.
Funding Information
Using a competitive process, USDA and CAF will award grants between $500,000 and $600,000 to 8 projects (totaling up to $4.8 million).
Eligibility Criteria
- Projects must be collaboratively administered by at least three local Partners (including a Lead Partner). A maximum of five Partners can be named on the application.
- Groups of partners must include at least one School Food Authority (SFA). Other partners may include food producers (including farmers, ranchers, and fishermen), processors, manufacturers, suppliers, and/or distributors; cooperative extensions; local government agencies; and/or community-based food support organizations.
- The Lead Partner must have a demonstrated history of building a nutritious school food program and/or developing strong local food systems that serve K-12 schools. The Lead Partner will be responsible for coordinating all grant activities and reporting requirements.
- All Partners must be located within 250-miles of the Lead Partner. Partners must be based in the contiguous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, or the United States Virgin Islands.
For more information, visit Chef Ann Foundation.
