The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) 2023 to 2024 California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program will award competitive grants to support projects that cultivate equity, nurture students, build climate resilience, and create scalable and sustainable change.
Track 4 (the California Farm to School Producer Grant) will fund California food producers and public-serving aggregation and distribution enterprises to increase production, processing, and/or distribution capacity to sell California-grown or -produced, whole or minimally processed foods to the California school food market.
To be eligible, an applicant must show evidence of an established relationship with each California School Food Authority or childcare center operator of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to which they intend to sell food.
Applications will not be accepted after 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, April 4, 2024.
Funding will prioritize small to midsize food producers; veteran, socially disadvantaged, and/or limited-resource food producers; and food producers utilizing climate-smart agriculture practices or production systems like certified organic, transitioning to certified organic, or other regenerative strategies.
Applicants may propose to use funds to:
(1) purchase infrastructure, equipment, and supplies to increase production, processing, and/or distribution capacity to sell California-grown or -produced, whole or minimally processed foods to schools; and/or
(2) purchase infrastructure, equipment, and supplies to establish or enhance the use of climate-smart agriculture practices, production systems, and/or other regenerative strategies when producing California-grown or -produced, whole or minimally processed foods to sell to schools; and/or
(3) cover staffing costs dedicated to farm-to-school activities; and/or
(4) pursue certifications, licensures, or insurance that the applicant needs to sell California-grown or -produced, whole or minimally processed foods to schools; and/or
(5) establish new or expand existing hands-on food education opportunities for students, School Food Authority staff, and/or childcare center staff that complement the applicant’s existing or project-related California food sales to California schools, such as field trips, producer visits to the cafeteria or classroom, etc.
For additional information and a link to the application, visit https://www.gotomygrants.com/Public/Opportunities/Details/7060a7bd-8e00-4c25-88e5-446260a9df06 or contact Nicholas Anicich at cafarmtoschool@cdfa.ca.gov.
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Text adapted from a CDFA webpage.