NY State Farm-to-School Grant Program

The NY State Farm-to-School Grant Program promotes the use of locally produced foods in K-12 school cafeterias, enhancing meal quality and fostering relationships between schools and New York farmers. Its secondary goals include improving agricultural education and exposing students to local culinary experiences, ultimately benefiting school-age children across the state.

NOTE: Applicants must be registered and pre-qualified in the Grants Gateway, and the organization’s document vault must be up to date. Registration and pre-qualification may take several weeks to complete, it is recommended to start the process as soon as possible.
Program Description
Farm-to-School is the promotion and use of foods produced by New York State farmers in meals served in cafeterias of K-12 schools. Associations between farms and schools through the cafeteria and classroom can enhance the quality of food served. With over 700 school districts in New York State, there is the opportunity to foster relationships among New York State farmers, food hubs, producers, processors, and distributors to benefit school-age children.
While serving New York State produced food in school cafeterias may seem simple, developing Farm-to-School connections highlights several challenges, particularly the lack of an established infrastructure or network of stakeholders that includes all the necessary parties: farmers, food service directors, food service contract management companies, food distributors, processors, agricultural organizations, and commodity organizations. Other challenges include:
Seasonality: Farmers plan their crops in January, long before schools make purchasing decisions and place bids for products in the summer. In addition, the summer growing season is when schools are not in session. Inconsistent quality, quantity, and sizing: schools require produce to be served in standard units and meet specifications.Processing and packaging: schools require vegetables and fruits to be processed and packaged in standard units.Bidding: sending and reviewing bids from individual farmers can be timeconsuming and complex for school procurement and fiscal staff. Delivery/pick up: distribution can be complicated when purchasing from multiple growers.Lack of equipment and skills to store, prepare and serve fresh produce procured for school meals programs.Connecting diverse populations with their culturally appropriate foods. Lack of training and workforce development for culinary staff.
The New York State Farm-to-School Competitive Grants Program began in 2015 to increase school’s purchase of New York specialty crops by building relationships between schools and New York farm product suppliers. Secondary goals of the program include increasing agricultural education opportunities for students, improving nutrition and exposing students to new, local, culinary experiences.