Farm to School Grant Provides $720K

The Long Beach Unified School District has been awarded a $720,000 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to support the District’s Farm to School program efforts.

The funds will be used by LBUSD to source locally-grown, culturally-relevant fruits and vegetables to serve in school cafeterias, provide nutrition education to students, support new and existing gardens, and purchase equipment that will enable the District to wash and cut produce in-house. 

LBUSD’s Farm to School program began in September 2021 and has sourced more than 125,000 pounds of locally grown produce for school cafeterias. In 2021, the District received its first Farm to School grant for $500,000. The new funds will continue to build upon existing program efforts which have supported more than 20 school gardens, provided virtual field trips to local farms and much more.

The CDFA’s Farm to School Grant Program supports California farmers and expands healthy food access by providing schools with funds to establish programs that promote local and California-grown food procurement and use in school meals, and food and agriculture education in classrooms and cafeterias.