USDA Farm to School Grant changes overview

[Tristana Pirkl]

Hi Everyone,

Check out this fantastic overview of the changes to the FY 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant written by our friends at the National Farm to School Network for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition blog. It provides a great and concise overview of what's different and what's available. Check it out! 

Best, 

Tristana

Tristana Pirkl Executive Director School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network (She/Her) www.sgsonetwork.org

[Sherman Garden]

Thanks, Tristana! This is super helpful.

[Sherman Garden]

Is anyone applying for this FY2026 USDA F2S grant, due December 5th? One of their priorities this year is “strategies that scale up and expand the reach of farm-to-CNP efforts.” 

Our nonprofit delivers garden and nutrition education in a very large school district, but because the Food Services Department requires extremely high volumes of produce, it’s difficult for us to realistically move the needle on procurement.

For those applying in similar contexts:

• How can garden/nutrition education nonprofits address this priority when direct procurement impact is limited?
  
• What kinds of scalable strategies, indirect procurement supports or alternative interpretations could be deployed to align with this requirement?
  

Also, the blog post that Tristana shared notes that the FY 2025 cycle was canceled because the grant’s scoring criteria added bonus points related to equity. Those points were removed from the FY 2026 cycle. The previous RFA awarded up to seven bonus points for racial equity priorities, including tribal organizations, and organizations led or staffed by people of color and serving communities of color. Ouch.

I would love to hear how others are navigating both the priority shift and the new scoring landscape.

-- 

Christina Abuelo

School Garden Equity Catalyst

Pronouns: she/her/ella

Coordinator - (858) 210-2628

@barrio_botany

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