FY 2025 Farm to School Grant - State Agency

Summary

The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program is designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools and connect students to the sources of their food through education, taste tests, school gardens, field trips, and local food sourcing for school meals. Grants can launch new farm to school programs or expand existing efforts. The fiscal year (FY) 2025 Farm to School State Agency Grant is intended to promote agricultural education and increase the amount of local food served in eligible child nutrition program (CNP) operators by funding state agencies to support and grow farm to CNP efforts in their states.

The FY 2025 Farm to School State Agency Grant awards projects of 24 months in length for funding for up to $500,000. Applicants are required to provide matching support of at least 25 percent of the total project budget in the form of cash or in-kind contributions.

This RFA is one of three funding opportunities being offered under the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program in FY 2025. Please see the RFA Grant Track Decision Document under the “Related Documents” tab in Grants.gov for more information on the different grant types.

Eligibility

State agencies are the only entity eligible for the FY 2025 Farm to School State Agency Grant. Please see page 12 of the RFA. Section 3 Eligibility Entities not meeting the eligibility definitions will be deemed ineligible and removed from competition without further consideration.

For the purposes of this RFA, state agencies are any statewide government agency that administers or works in partnership with the agency that administers the federal CNPs (e.g., Office of Public Instruction, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, etc.). Eligibility is not restricted to the state agency that administers the CNP(s). If a State Agency Grant applicant does not administer the NSLP, CACFP, SFSP, and/or the SBP, the applicant must include a letter of commitment from the CNP-administering state agency. This letter of commitment does count toward the three-letter limit. Any other entity type applying to the State Agency Grant track will have their application removed from consideration. Please note that local government agencies, such as city and county government agencies, are not considered to be state agencies and are thus ineligible to apply to the State Agency Grant.

Additionally, applicants can only submit one application across the three FY 2025 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant solicitations (i.e. Implementation, Turnkey or State Agency). If multiple packages are submitted through Grants.gov by the same applicant to more than one FY 2025 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant solicitations ALL submissions will be removed.

For additional information please see the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program website.