Farm to School Grants Available

Farm to School Grants Available

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

There are Farm to School Grants available nationwide to help eligible schools improve the health of their students and connect with local ag producers. USDA’s Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan describes the program.
Merrigan: “We have two different grants. One is a planning grant for schools that are just ready to dip their toe into the water. And implementation grants for schools that have been already exploring Farm to School and need to bring it to the next level.”

These grants will assist schools in procuring food from local producers as well as including ag and nutrition education efforts such as school gardens, field trips to local farms, and cooking classes.

Deputy Secretary Merrigan shares the benefit for local farmers.

Merrigan: “That maybe that traditional family farm, where figuring out an institutional arrangement to get that food directly into the schools will help their bottom line. Will allow them to capture more of that food dollar that we all spend which our Economic Research Service shows that only 14 cents goes back directly to the farmer in his pocket. So this is a great way for the farmers to benefit and for the local community to benefit because it is not just the farmer, it is the whole community, keeping that dollar closer to home.”

The deadline for grant proposals is June 15. For more information about the grant program go online to the USDA Farm to School website.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.