Volume 8, Issue 9, June 2022

A Trailblazer for Local Foods

A Trailblazer for Local Foods

Quality Care Services (QCS) in El Dorado, Kansas partnered with the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), a Fiscal Year 2020 Farm to School State Agency grantee, to bring gardening and farm to plate eating to 17 individual Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) sites and 174 children. The CACFP provides healthy meals and snacks to children and adults receiving day care.  It plays a vital role in improving the quality of day care, while making it more affordable for many low-income families.  With the KSDE partnership, QCS was able to award 17 farm to school kits to CACFP centers around the State of Kansas. There were three types of kits to choose from including: Beginning Baker, Great Gardner, and Quality Coop. Not only did each Quality Care Services kit recipient implement their specific farm to school category, but they also received materials and resources to support incorporating local foods through the entire CACFP plate. This program successfully increased the quantity of local foods offered, and the 17 childcare sites reported to QCS that over 7,500 pounds of local foods served in nine months.

Quality Care Services provided each of their 17 recipients technical assistance and a sustainability plan to ensure success in the implementation for the materials provided. QCS plans to offer a Farm to Plate training to all its CACFP participants to showcase the success of farm to school programs, while bringing increased awareness of what is considered a local food. These innovative ideas and tools have resulted in many of the centers sharing the excitement of their first bloom, harvest, or gather, while others had a blast engaging the children in their programs in hands-on activities creating snacks using local ingredients in their baked goods.

Quality Care Service’s farm to school program has expanded to now offer a lending library that focuses on local foods, and small traveling kits with children’s books and activity guides for CACFP providers in the QCS network and all CACFP providers around the State. CACFP providers can use these kits to explore local foods with the children in their program.

Due to her innovative approach to introducing farm to school programs to CACFP’s statewide, Brooke Wolf, the executive director of Quality Care Services, was selected as the winner in the Trailblazer category of the Inspire Awards for her joyful innovation during the 2022 National Child Nutrition Conference.  “It was important for me to embrace any opportunity which may bring joy or happiness to our providers during such difficult times (such as the pandemic),” Wolf said. “Embracing the opportunity of the KSDE local foods subgrant was exactly what our organization and providers needed. This was an innovative way to increase awareness of local foods, while continuing to enhance the CACFP. In turn, our efforts toward the local foods mission is what earned us the Trailblazer Award. I am humbled and honored to be recognized nationally.”

USDA announces the Food System Transformation Framework

On June 1st, 2022, Secretary Vilsack announced details of USDA’s Food System Transformation Framework.  As part of USDA’s efforts to create more and better markets for producers and consumers, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is developing a Farm to School State Formula Grant.

USDA will use $60 million in funding through the American Rescue Plan Act to provide non-competitive grants to support State agency engagement in farm to school coordination and technical assistance by funding State-level farm to school activities that increase the capacity of participating child nutrition program operators to procure and use local foods in program meals and provide agricultural education opportunities for participating children.

For more information see the USDA’s press release

Release of the Revised Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition Programs Guide On June 21, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s (FNS) Farm to School Program released the revised Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition Programs Guide, which provides an overview of federal procurement principles and covers topics related to sourcing and purchasing local foods for State agencies and child nutrition program operators. The guide highlights a variety of mechanisms schools can use to purchase local products while staying in accordance with federal procurement regulations. The guide features examples of how to target local foods when conducting both formal and informal procurements, use the Geographic Preference option, and use the USDA Foods and DoD Fresh Programs to enhance local purchasing. For more information visit the Procurement Guide Webpage

Farm to School Seeding Success Webinar Series

The USDA Farm to School Program wrapped up their 2022 Seeding Success webinar series. This annual series provided engaging content and resources around grant requirements, school gardens, the value of data tracking, procurement, and successful teams.

Click the links below to view the four-part 2022 Seeding Success Webinar Series:

Webinar 1: Let it Grow! Sowing Knowledge in Edible Gardens

Webinar 2: Track It! How to Make Your Farm to School Efforts Count

Webinar 3: Purchasing Outside the Box: Local Procurement Beyond the Apple

Webinar 4: Building a Culture of Farm to School

To view our 2020 and 2021 Seeding Success Webinars

Where is the Farm to School Team?

On Tuesday, June 28th through Thursday, June 30th the Farm to School Team will be attending the educator workshop 2022-23 Northeast Farm to School Institute Summer Retreat at Shelburne Farms in Vermont. The Institute is a unique year-long professional learning opportunity for selected school, district, or early childhood teams from around New England and New York.

On Thursday, June 30^th at the 2022 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference, the Farm to School Team will be presenting “USDA Farm to School Grant Program: Connecting to School Culture” an interactive workshop that will provide farm to school success stories, technical assistance, and an overview of the Farm to School Grant Program and the Farm to School Census to educational professionals from around the nation. Come meet us at our exhibit booth and learn about our resources.

On Sunday, July 10^th the Farm to School Team will be presenting the session: "Dig Into Farm to School" at the 2022 School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference, featuring a Q&A panel with USDA Farm to School grantees. Come meet the Farm to School Team at booth #214 to learn more about our resources and technical assistance!

On Wednesday, July 27^th, the Farm to School Team will be hosting a panel presentation at the Pennsylvania School Nutrition Annual Conference that will discuss the Farm to School Grant Program, and feature Pennsylvania Farm to School grantees who will share stories about their farm to school projects.

Funding opportunities for State Agencies Local Food for Schools (LFS) Cooperative Agreement Program

USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) will award up to $200 million to States for food assistance purchases of domestic local foods for distribution to schools. This program emphasizes purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors.

Application Due Date: July 20, 2022

Funding for a variety of eligible entities NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Sustainable Agricultural Systems

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Sustainable Agricultural Systems supports approaches that promote transformational changes in the U.S. food and agriculture system. NIFA seeks applications that take a systems approach for projects that are expected to significantly improve the supply of affordable, safe, nutritious, and accessible agricultural products while fostering economic development and rural prosperity in America.

Application Due Date: July 28, 2022

Funding for qualified lenders Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program

The USDA Rural Development Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program authorized by the American Rescue Plan. This program guarantees loans of up to $40 million for qualified lenders to finance food systems projects, specifically for the start-up or expansion of activities in the middle of the food supply chain. The program will support new investments in infrastructure for food aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storage, transportation, wholesaling, and distribution.

Application Due Date: Applications accepted until funds are exhausted

USDA Invests $770 Million to Expand Market Opportunities for Rural Businesses and People in 36 States and Puerto Rico

Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA investment of $770 million to help create new and better market opportunities for rural businesses and people in 36 States and Puerto Rico. The investments include $640 million for 122 projects to help people living in socially vulnerable communities.

Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Strengthen Food Supply Chains, Level the Playing Field for Growers, and Lower Prices for American Consumers

Secretary Tom Vilsack announced new rules, resources, and additional support that will strengthen the American food supply chain, promote fair and competitive agricultural markets, and make prices fairer for farmers and American consumers. These actions build on President Biden’s historic whole-of-government effort to promote competition in the American economy and to help combat market dominance by a small number of major meat and poultry processors in key markets, where excessive concentration and control has led to lower prices paid to producers and higher prices paid by consumers.

USDA Advances Food System Transformation with $43 Million for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, Adds New Urban County Committees 

Funding is First Part of $75 Million Investment to Support a Fairer Food System and Expand Access to Nutritious Food

USDA has announced significant investments to support urban agriculture, including $43.1 million for grants and cooperative agreements as well as six new urban county committees to help deliver key USDA programs to urban producers. These actions support USDA’s efforts to strengthen the food supply chain and transform the food system to be fairer, more competitive, and more resilient. 

USDA will be investing $10.2 million in new cooperative agreements to expand compost and food waste reduction efforts and $14.2 million in new grants to support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production projects. Additionally, $18.7 million will fund 75 worthy grant proposals from the 2021 application cycle. 

For more information, see the full press release

School Garden Leadership Institute Seeking School District-Run Programs

The School Garden Support Organization Leadership Institute is seeking school garden leadership teams to collaborate, learn from one another, and curate resources to share with a national audience. They are seeking school district-run garden programs or those collaborating with a school district(s) to support multiple school gardens

Sliding scale fees and travel stipends available. Apply by August 1.

The SGSO Leadership Institute takes place in Santa Cruz, CA 

December 4-9, 2022 

Release of the Urban Agriculture Toolkit The USDA recently released an urban agriculture toolkit, which provides resources for both producers and farm system partners. Tools include grants, loans, partnering with farmers markets and programs like WIC, crop insurance, and many other USDA services that can help urban farmers feed their communities.

USDA DoD Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Update With the 2021-2022 school year ending, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is excited to announce that this summer, 27 States have allocated over $10 million of SFSP dollars to USDA DoD Fresh to provide fresh fruits and vegetables in the SFSP.  Many States had school food authorities (SFAs) that chose to provide meals under the SFSP, using the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option Operations through School Year 2020-2021 Waiver Extension. With funding made available through USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), USDA has provided $300 million for USDA Foods, including USDA DoD Fresh for States to distribute to schools to offset the impact of disruptions to their normal supply chains. Learn more about the Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Program

National Pollinator Week is here! Check out the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Materials Center in Corvallis, Oregon’s  Ask the Expert blog on how to select pollinator mixes right for your environment.

The Dirt is a monthly publication of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, Farm to School Program, providing news and resources for former, current, and future Farm to School grantees, and for all readers who want to know what is new and exciting in farm to school.

Not yet subscribed to The Dirt?

Hungry for more information about the USDA Farm to School Program?

Please go to the USDA's Farm to School Program Website and discover more about our Farm to School Grant Program, Farm to School Census, and Technical Assistance and Training.

   Contact us at farmtoschool@usda.gov

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (866) 632-9992 (Toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (Local or Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users).