MENDOCINO CO., 9/10/24 — The California Department of Food and Agriculture announced Friday that $52.8 million will be granted to 195 food projects throughout the state as a part of the California Farm to School Incubator Grant. Eleven educational programs throughout Mendocino County will receive funding from the grant program, including Willits Charter Association, Pacific Community Charter School in Point Arena, Shanél Valley Academy in Hopland and Fort Bragg Unified School District.
The projects will support food education programs in classrooms, construction of school farms and gardens, and the purchase of local produce for students’ daily meals.
The funds will largely support schools and educational centers, with the remainder going to farms and tribes. This round of funding will serve about 1.7 million students, 199 school districts, 52 farms and five Native American tribes.
Farm-to-school programs are meant to increase food equity and nutrition in local communities. In 2019, about one in seven children in California was food-insecure, according to the report Planting the Seed: Farm to School Roadmap to Success. School nutrition services provide about 6 million school meals to California students each day, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, one-quarter of all low-income families with children relied on school meals to cover food shortages. In Mendocino County, about 73.9% of students are eligible for the free and reduced-price meal program, meaning these students are economically disadvantaged.
In the Fort Bragg Unified School District (FBUSD), 76% of students are economically struggling, meaning school meals are paramount to their nutrition. “Everyone already has access to two free meals per day, due to being socioeconomically disadvantaged,” said Fort Bragg High School’s Assistant Principal Tim Anderson. “We are lucky to be a recipient of this grant to help supplement our thriving food service.”
FBUSD will receive $200,000 from the grant program to improve gardens throughout the district, purchase supplies for its Elementary Garden Education program and other agriculture classes and support a new farm-to-table class at the district’s alternative education school. More than $25,000 has been earmarked to buy produce from local farms for school meals and FBUSD’s Harvest of the Month education program.
Pilar Gray, the FBUSD director of nutrition services, said the grant will greatly help the school district. “There are several pieces to our grant, which will have a wonderful impact,” she said. “It will support all of our school garden nutrition education programs, our middle school and high school FFA (Future Farmers of America) and agriculture department, our school meals, and our local farmers.”
Funds have also been allocated for continuing education for garden and agriculture teachers. “FBUSD has been working on farm-to-school for decades, so our garden and farm facilities are in great need of upgrading,” she added.
The California Farm to School Incubator Grant, which began in 2021, is a state-funded program. In the last three years, CDFA’s Farm to School Incubator Grant Program has invested $86 million in 375 projects, reaching approximately 49% of all California students.
“Through California Farm to School, the state is setting a nation-leading standard for childhood nutrition,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom in a press release. “Together with universal school meals, we’re ensuring students have access to two delicious and nutritious meals each day, and that those meals are locally sourced, climate-smart and offered to students alongside hands-on educational opportunities in school gardens, farms and kitchens.”
To see which projects are funded by the CA Farm to School Incubator Grant in Mendocino County and the rest of the state, visit cdfa.ca.gov.