ABOUT WSDA FARM TO SCHOOL PURCHASING GRANTS
WSDA Farm to School Purchasing Grants are reimbursement grants to support child nutrition programs with funds to purchase foods grown, raised, caught, or foraged in Washington State with an emphasis on procurement from small and direct marketing farms and food businesses, including socially disadvantaged, beginning, limited resource, women and veteran farmers and ranchers.
The grant funds are intended to support schools and early learning services in procuring high quality, nutritious, culturally relevant foods for their meal programs.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted food supply chains making it difficult for child nutrition programs to procure food. To recover from these negative impacts on the Washington state local food economy and communities, Washington State needs strong farm to school programs. Support to child nutrition program operators is essential to this recovery and to assure future resiliency in the local food supply chain and access to local foods in child nutrition programs.
There are three program types:
- School Meals
- Childcare Meals
- Summer Meals
To learn more about the impacts past grantees have made on Washington children, farmers and local food systems, explore our two infographics:
- Farm to School Purchasing Grant Impact Infographic: January-August 2022.
- Farm to School Purchasing Grant Impact Infographic: September 2022 - June 2023.
Contact Us:
farmtoschool@agr.wa.gov
(360) 974-9752
Grant Impacts: 2022-2023 Annual Report
This infographic shows the impacts Farm to School Purchasing Grants made on Washington children, farmers and local food systems during the 2022-2023 school year.
WSDA FARM TO SCHOOL PURCHASING GRANT 2023-2025: ROUND 2 RESULTS
WSDA is pleased to announce 24 applicants have been selected for a 2023-2025 Round 2 - Farm to School Farm to School Purchasing Grant award, including 18 school meal programs, five childcare meal programs, and one summer meal program.
WSDA received 37 applications this round with requests totaling over $1 million, more than triple the available funding. This is the second round of funding made available during the 2023-2025 biennium, with $3.7 million awarded in Fall 2023. Altogether, WSDA has awarded over $4 million to 128 Farm to School Purchasing Grant beneficiaries this biennium.
Click here to see the full list of selected Round 2 applicants, program type, funding amounts, and county location. Read the Press Release here. Learn about past grant awards here.
Grant Guidelines
For information about eligible applicants, grant award amounts, eligible expenses, grant application and award process, evaluation criteria and more, read the Grant Guidelines (Lineamientos para la subvención) in full before applying.
Awarded applicants will receive a grant agreement they must sign and return to WSDA. View a Sample Grant Beneficiary Agreement (Ejemplo de acuerdo de beneficiario de subvención).
Additional Information
To see information about our last two grant rounds and their impact on children, farmers and local food systems, see our Awarded Grants page.
If you are a producer interested in selling to grant beneficiaries, please see our For Producers page.