Apply for Farm to School and Early Childhood Capacity Building Grant Program

The purpose of this grant is to help schools and early childhood education providers build and enhance farm to school and early childhood programs that will enrich the educational experiences of students, sustain relationships with agricultural producers, improve the health of Vermont children, and enhance Vermont’s agricultural economy. Farm to school and early childhood is a broad term that refers to a variety of initiatives that help address issues related to nutrition, agriculture and community engagement. Each farm to school and early childhood program is unique. This grant is intended to help build programs that reflect the values and respond to the needs of the grantee organization.

Focus Areas

• Creating a farm to school or farm to early childhood Action Plan and timeline
• Completing the Farm to School and Early Childhood Rubric
• Developing and maintaining a project budget
• Connecting and coordinating with technical assistance service providers
• Growing relationships between the organization and the local community to enhance project success
• Consulting on topics such as organizing farm visits, classroom activities, curriculum development, and connecting organizations with the greater farming community

Funding Information

• The total amount of funds available for this grant cycle is $150,000.
• Minimum & Maximum Award
  • Total number of Students/Children: 0 – 30
  • Award Amount: $5,000
  • Total number of Students/Children: 31 – 100
  • Award Amount: $7,000
  • Total number of Students/Children: 101 – 300
  • Award Amount: $10,000
  • Total number of Students/Children: 301 +
  • Award Amount: $15,000

Outcomes

• By the end of the grant period, each grantee will have:
  • Formally established a functional project team
  • Developed an action plan to guide the project team’s work
  • Fully utilized the grant-funded financial and technical assistance to implement their action plan

Eligible Activities

• Meal Program Support:
  • Examples of training topics include, but are not limited to:
    • Starting or expanding federal child nutrition programs
    • Increasing student meal program participation
    • Long-term planning and forecasting
    • Implementing meal service best practices to make meals more accessible for kids,
    • Implementation or expansion of free summer and afterschool meal programs
    • Identifying alternative methods for providing meals and snack when federal nutrition programs are not viable
    • Exploring creative partnerships to support meal programs and food access programs including 3SquaresVT and WIC
• Local Food Procurement:
  • Areas of support include, but are not limited to:
    • identifying local farmers and producers,
    • navigating procurement regulations,
    • tracking local purchases, etc.
    • utilizing CSA shares,
    • applying to the Vermont Local Foods Incentive Grant (K-12 only),
    • forward contracting
• Curriculum Integration:
  • Topics covered by curriculum support include, but are not limited to:
    • Food and food systems, agriculture & environment, and nutrition
    • Offer connections to resources, tools, partners, organizations, etc. to grantee schools based on grantee identified needs and specific work
    • Provide virtual assistance and consultation to individual grantee schools on an as-needed basis
    • Educator support around specific farm to school and early childhood topics or initiatives
• School Gardens:
  • Trainings will cover critical aspects of successful garden projects as well as information on how to integrate gardens into a comprehensive farm to school or early childhood program. On-site technical assistance visits can include nutritional programming or hands-on workshops related to gardening topics such as general garden planning, seed starting, creating pollinator habitat, on-site composting, and more.
• Alternative Professional Development Opportunities:
  • Grantees can substitute different professional development opportunities if desired. The alternative activity will not be funded through the support services component of this grant but can be paid for using grant funds. Alternative activities must be pre-approved by the VAAFM grant program manager.

Eligibility Criteria

• The following entities are eligible to apply for this competitive grant:
  • Vermont licensed early childhood education centers
  • A group of three or more registered family childcare home (FCCH) providers (the group can include a mix of FCCH and center-based programs)
  • Independent schools participating in any federal child nutrition programs
  • Individual public schools
  • Supervisory unions (SU) or educational districts on behalf of a public school or consortium of schools.

For more information, visit Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.