Child Nutrition Discretionary Grants Limited Availability

National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Equipment Assistance Grants are competitively awarded subgrants to local educational agencies and schools to purchase equipment, with a value of greater than $1,000, needed to serve healthier meals, improve food safety, and to help support the establishment, maintenance, or expansion of the School Breakfast Program.

Direct Certification Improvement Grants are awarded to assist States agencies in improving their direct certification processes and rates.

Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children demonstrations develop and test innovative methods of providing access to food for children during the summer months when schools are not in regular session to reduce or eliminate the food insecurity and hunger of children, and improve the nutritional status of children. Participating States and Tribal Nations provide Summer EBT food benefits on debit cards to eligible low-income families with school-age children during the summer months, giving them more resources to use at retail food stores.

Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards and Sub-Grants for School Food Authorities is a cooperative agreement between USDA and Action for Healthy Kids to improve the nutritional quality of school meals. Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative Supplemental Marketing and Communications is a cooperative agreement between USDA and Action for Healthy Kids to implement marketing and communications efforts to foster the sharing of best practices among School Food Authorities across the country as they implement the school meal standards in the Final Rule titled, “Child Nutrition Programs: Meal Patterns Consistent With the 202-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative Spring 2024 Healthy Meals Summit was a cooperative agreement between USDA and Action for Healthy Kids to convene Healthy Meals Incentives small and rural grantees to discuss grant projects and share innovative ideas for improving the nutritional quality of school meals.

Agencies participating in the school meals programs, 501c3 organizations.

Upon receipt of an application from an interested party a review is performed by the agency for eligibility and sufficiency of the Request For Applications (RFA) requirements. Subsequently, all acceptable applications are objectively reviewed by a technical panel according to established criteria set forth in the RFA. The panel makes award recommendations based on the scoring results. The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) selecting official then makes the final award decisions.

Selection of applicants for a grant award can take from 2 to 5 months depending on the number of applications that are received.