The Vermont Farm to School Grant Program provides Vermont schools with funds to integrate local foods in school cafeterias, classrooms and communities.

The program encourage schools and school districts to:

• Serve food to Vermont students that is as fresh and nutritious as possible
• Maximize the use of fresh, locally grown foods
• Educate students about healthy eating habits through nutrition education while making the connections between farming and the foods that students consume
• Increase the size and stability of farmers’ direct sales market
• Increase school meal participation by increasing the selection of foods available to students.

This grant program is made possible by collaboration between the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Health and the VT FEED partnership with funding from the Vermont legislator.

Thanks to grant funding secured by the Vermont Department of Health from the Centers for Disease Control, Community Transformation Program, we are able to expand the scope of this grant program.

• Implementation grant applicants can now apply for a maximum of $20,000 and can include school gardening activities.
• Planning grant applicants can apply for $5000 and can pilot Farm to School activities post the planning stage of their grant. See applications for more details.
• • Regional Network Development grants are now available for district wide or regional program development and statewide shared learning.

Grant applications can be downloaded by clicking the
How to Apply tab.
Implementation and Planning/Pilot applications must be received no later than 4:30 p.m., May 9, 2012.
Regional Network Development applications must be received no later than 4:30 p.m., May 23, 2102.
Any application that does not meet this deadline will not be considered.