Farm to school makes local food and agricultural education available to child nutrition program participants through grants, research, technical assistance, and training.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded nearly $20 million of fiscal year (FY) 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants, kicking off the largest ever single-year financial investment in the history of the grant program. As part of the Harvest to Hallways initiative, USDA will award up to $25 million in additional grants from the cohort of applications that were submitted in response to the FY2026 opportunity announcement to support projects that bring more real, local food to America’s schoolchildren while expanding economic opportunities for farmers and food producers. To learn more about the FY 2026 awards, visit the grant awards page.
We are clarifying the geographic preference option—a tool that helps child nutrition program (CNP) operators more easily purchase local foods for program meals. The update is meant to support CNP operators in bringing more local food to students’ plates. To learn more, check out the memo Simplified Geographic Preference Procurement in Child Nutrition Programs.
- Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants
- Farm to School - Planning Toolkit
- USDA Foods: A Resource for Maximizing Food Budgets To Buy Local Factsheet
- USDA DoD Fresh Program: A Source for Locally Grown Produce Factsheet
- Agricultural Marketing Service Grants, Loans and Other Support
- Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grants
- Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Cooperative Agreements
