The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced cancellation of the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program for fiscal year 2025, which would have provided $10 million to help schools and early care and education (ECE) centers incorporate local foods, nutrition education, and garden activities into their meal programs. Since 2013, this competitive grant has provided one of the only dedicated sources of federal funding for schools and ECEs to connect children with healthy, local foods while supporting farmers, ranchers, and food producers. The program helps connect students to their food sources through nutrition education, school gardens, and local food procurement. Without this funding, vital progress toward healthier food for kids, and the education to participate in where that food comes from, is at risk.
This announcement comes on the heels of USDA’s cancelation of the Local Food for Schools and Child Care (LFSCC) funding, which would have provided $660m in funds for local food purchases to child nutrition programs, as well as numerous other disruptions and uncertainties that communities across the country are facing right now.
We are extremely dismayed by this abrupt change, and the risk to the progress and momentum that the hard work of the farm to school and farm to ECE movement has built.
Your Senators and Members of Congress can call on USDA for answers -- a commitment to how and when they will fulfill their responsibility to carry out this grant program with a minimum of disruption.
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