Funding Wizard

The goal of the FY 2023 Team Nutrition Grant is to facilitate the adoption of healthy eating patterns by school-aged children (grades Pre-K through 12) and their families through the coordination and implementation of MyPlate nutrition education connected to the nutritious meals and snacks offered through USDA Child Nutrition Programs.ObjectivesIncrease the consumption of nutritious foods and beverages offered through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP) and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) At-Risk Afterschool Meals and Outside School Hours Care Centers (OSHCC) via high-quality MyPlate nutrition education.Increase awareness of the MyPlate symbol and accompanying MyPlate nutrition education tools, resources, and messages. Increase awareness of the nutritional contributions of meals and snacks offered to students from parents/caregivers, school coaches and athletic trainers, school nurses, afterschool program operators, and Pre-K-12 teachers.Improve equity by increasing the number of students from historically underserved and marginalized populations who are reached by nutrition education resources, including resources and recipes that are culturally appropriate and/or in the preferred language of the students and their families.Increase school community engagement in the development, implementation, and assessment of the Local School Wellness Policy (LWP).

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), authorized under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, is the cornerstone of the Nation’s nutrition assistance safety net. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) certifies low-income Americans to participate in the program and authorizes and monitors retailers to accept SNAP benefits for eligible food products. Currently, around 40 million low-income Americans receive SNAP benefits, and more than 250,000 retailers are authorized to accept SNAP benefits.Section 1001 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, P.L. 117-2, (“ARPA”) authorized USDA $4,000,000,000 for Food Supply Chain and Agriculture Pandemic Response, including the ability to provide grants and other assistance to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency. The Department authorized $25,000,000, on a competitive basis, to enter into cooperative agreements with State agencies to carry out Electronic Healthy Incentive Projects (eHIP) under USDA’s Framework to Transform the Food System.FNS announces, through this Request for Applications, the availability of a maximum of $25,000,000 in total grant funding to award as many as three cooperative agreement grants. Eligible entities are the 53 State Agencies who administer SNAP benefits. This award is contingent upon the availability of funds.Awards are contingent upon funds having been apportioned internally and made available to FNS.FNS reserves the right to make more than one award, and to use this competition to award additional grants in this or the subsequent fiscal year should additional funding become available.In 2012, FNS tested a way of making fruits and vegetables more affordable for participants in SNAP through the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP). Under HIP, SNAP participants received 30 cents for every SNAP dollar spent on qualifying fruits and vegetables at participating SNAP-authorized firms. The pilot’s incentive model integrated incentive delivery and redemption through the State’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) processor, which loaded the incentive directly onto the household’s EBT card (i.e., EBT integration).The final HIP evaluation presented positive findings on the impacts of financial incentives for fruit and vegetable consumption and as a result, FNS has witnessed a significant increase in healthy foods incentives offered to SNAP households. In FY 2022, the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) awarded $38,700,000 to 8 organizations, to implement fruit and vegetable incentive projects to SNAP households; FNS approved six incentive waiver requests for independent retailers to offer fruit and vegetable incentives across seven States; and FNS awarded $3,000,000 for a grantee to implement a healthy milk incentive project across six States. The increased purchase for fruit and vegetables resulting from eHIP will maintain and strengthen the delivery infrastructure of such foods, benefitting supply chain resiliency.While HIP tested the impact of financial incentives and the feasibility of EBT integration, eHIP will evaluate the administrative costs when administered at the State-level through the State’s EBT processor and compare these costs to other incentive programs. FNS’ goal is to maximize funds directed to SNAP households, establish methods for consistent and effective incentive delivery, and decrease overall administrative costs. The final eHIP project will be independently evaluated by an evaluation contractor competitively selected by FNS.

In June of 2022, the USDA launched the Food System Transformation framework which aims to build a more resilient food supply chain, create a fairer food system, and make nutritious food more accessible and affordable for consumers, with a particular focus on equity. Under this RFA, the School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grant Cooperative Agreement will reflect FNS’ commitment to encourage the offering of healthier food products in the marketplace for school meals through engagement with the food industry and incentivizing innovation and partnerships. Increasing access to nutritious and appealing foods for kids is critical to the success of strong school meal standards. The selected Cooperator(s) will collaborate with food industry partners to support school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and community partners. The goal of this RFA is to select a Cooperator or Cooperators who will implement and manage the School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants. The Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards for SFAs, the Healthy Meals Incentives Sub-Grants for Small and/or Rural SFAs, and the Healthy Meals Summits were released under another RFA and are not included herein. The School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants described in this RFA were created to focus efforts to stimulate innovation in strengthening the availability of and access to nutritious food products in the K-12 school food marketplace. In addition, these sub-grants will support a more resilient food system through expanding manufacturing and purchasing capacity at the local and regional level. This, in turn, increases equitable access to healthy food products both in schools and in communities by way of support for agricultural producers, growers, and processors impacted by COVID-19. The School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants will support collaborative projects between school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and/or community partners to stimulate innovation in strengthening the availability of and access to nutritious food products in the K-12 school food marketplace.

USDA FNS has established the Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative to improve the nutritional quality of school meals through food systems transformation, SFA recognition and technical assistance, the generation and sharing of innovative ideas and tested practices, and grants. This Initiative consists of four key activities:The Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards for SFAs will recognize and share best practices from SFAs that have made significant improvements to the nutritional quality of their school meals.The Healthy Meals Incentives Grants for Small and/or Rural SFAs will offer competitive grants of up to $150,000 per grant for small and/or rural SFAs experiencing challenges in the improvement of the nutritional quality of their school meals due to limited staffing, difficulty in accessing training, increased food costs due to limited purchasing power, lack of physical space, and outdated kitchen equipment. The grants are intended to help small and/or rural SFAs overcome these challenges, improve the nutritional quality of school meals, and meet Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Award criteria.Healthy Meals Summits will convene Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Award recipients and School Food Systems Transformation grantees to be recognized, share best practices, and discuss strategies for sustaining their achievements into the future.School Food Systems Transformation Grants will stimulate innovation in strengthening the availability of nutritious food products in the kindergarten–12th (K–12) grade school food marketplace. The Healthy Meals Incentives activities noted above are expected to increase utilization, and thereby demand, for nutritious agricultural commodities, such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruits as well as food products that reflect various cultures. These efforts are also positioned to strengthen small and rural SFA’s access to nutritious agricultural commodities through food systems transformation and grants to small and rural SFA’s. The collection and sharing of best practices regarding SFA’s use of nutritious agricultural commodities in school meals, as well as the incentivization of practices such as nutrition education (including farm to school nutrition education), use of local agricultural products in scratch cooking, and the development of culturally diverse school meal menu items is also expected to indirectly benefit producers that supply food products to schools.This Development and Implementation of Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards and Sub-Grants for School Food Authorities RFA specifies USDA FNS’ intent to enter into a cooperative agreement with a non-governmental entity to assist with the recognition awards, grants for SFAs, and the planning and implementation of the Healthy Meals Summits. School Food Systems Transformation Grants are not an activity included in this RFA announcement but are a part of the overall Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative. These grants will be released under a separate RFA.

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers the nutrition assistance programs of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). FNS works to promote nutrition security through the administration of 15 Federal nutrition assistance programs, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a Federal nutrition assistance program that serves low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children up to five years old who are at nutritional risk. WIC provides nutritious foods, nutrition education including breastfeeding promotion and support, and referrals to health and social services to participants in all 50 states, 33 Indian Tribal Organizations, American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.FNS anticipates awarding up to $20 million to a Grantee (for the purpose of this RFA, this term is used in a general way to include cooperators who are awarded and manage cooperative agreements) to ultimately test the effectiveness of community outreach strategies in increasing WIC participation, especially among underserved populations within a community. This announcement of funding is for a one-time cooperative agreement with an accredited institution of higher education (college/university), nonprofit research entity, or other nonprofit organization.

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA) (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) establishes a Farm to School Program in order to assist eligible entities, through grants and technical assistance, in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods in USDA Food and Nutrition (FNS) Child Nutrition Programs, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).Each year $5 million is provided to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support grants, technical assistance, and other activities related to USDA’s Farm to School Program. Additional funding for the Farm to School Program was made available from the FY 2018 through FY 2021 agriculture appropriations acts and, as a result, USDA expects to award approximately $12 million under this solicitation. The USDA Farm to School Grant Program is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Office of Community Food Systems (OCFS).Authorizing language in Section 18(g) of the NSLA (42 U.S.C 1769(g)) directs the Secretary of Agriculture to award competitive grants, designed to improve access to local foods in eligible schools, for activities such as:• Training;• Supporting operations;• Planning;• Purchasing equipment;• Developing school gardens;• Developing partnerships; and,• Implementing farm to school programs.The NSLA also directs the Secretary to ensure geographical diversity and equitable treatment of urban, rural, and tribal communities in the distribution of grant awards, as well as give the highest priority to funding projects that, as determined by the Secretary:• Make local food products available on the menu of the eligible school;• Serve a high proportion of children who are eligible for free or reduced price lunches;• Incorporate experiential nutrition education activities in curriculum planning that encourage the participation of school children in farm and garden-based agricultural education activities;• Demonstrate collaboration between eligible schools, nongovernmental and community- based organizations, agricultural producer groups, and other community partners;• Include adequate and participatory evaluation plans;• Demonstrate the potential for long-term program sustainability; and,• Meet any other criteria that the Secretary determines appropriate.

The FY 2021 Agriculture Appropriations Senate Report (S.R. 115-259) directs the Secretary of Agriculture to use $500,000 to form at least one cooperative agreement with an established entity, such as a regional Farm to School institute, for the creation and dissemination of information on farm to school program development and to provide practitioner education, training, ongoing school year coaching, and technical assistance.” This cooperative agreement announces the availability of funds to establish a new three-year cooperative agreement focused on training state or regional level teams, or other teams serving specific populations that may not be bound by geography (such as tribal nations, refugee communities, etc.) to create farm to school institutes for the communities they serve.FNS awarded two Regional Farm to School Institute Grants in FY 2020. The grantees currently provide and conduct regular, ongoing trainings and technical assistance to schools, school districts, Indian tribal organizations, agricultural producers, and/or non-profit organizations. This is done with the intent to support and enhance eligible CNP (NSLP, SBP, CACFP, SFSP and FFVP) operators in developing robust, sustainable, and integrated Farm to School programs. The intent of this cooperative agreement is to replicate the success of the farm to institute model more widely across the county and provide ongoing technical assistance to new institutes as they are created and implemented.