01-04-2025
Indiana kids, farmers lose funding as USDA suspends farm to school grants for 2025
Another federal program meant to help deliver local fresh produce to students is being delayed after funding for this year's Farm to School grants was suspended.
The United States Department of Agriculture alerted schools last week that fiscal year 2025 grants for the Patrick Leahy Farm to School program had been canceled, preventing millions of dollars from flowing to local school districts or local agencies across the country.
The yearly competitive Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program was started in 2013.
Last year Indiana received close to $179,000 for three projects, one being a school garden initiative at PilotED Schools at Bethel Park Elementary in Indianapolis.
In an email from the USDA press office, it said that the fiscal year 2025 grant process, which was developed under the Biden administration, 'included scoring criteria inconsistent with President Trump's Executive Order.' It did not specify what scoring criteria are at odds.
The statement also said the USDA would not move further with this year's grant process and instead carry over this year's funds to next year's fiscal cycle. Funds from last year's cycle are available for previously qualified schools until they are spent, the USDA said.
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This announcement comes soon after the USDA announced a cut to its Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement program that also provided local farmers funding to help deliver produce to schools.
The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program is meant to help in planning, developing and implementation of farm to school program with the goal of 'connecting school-age children and adults to their food sources through nutrition education, school gardens, and local food procurement,' according to the National Farm to School Network.
Since 2013, the program has awarded $100 million for a total of 1,275 projects.
In fiscal year 2024, the USDA awarded a record amount of funding for the grant program, $14.3 million, to schools across the country, impacting an estimated 1.9 million students, according to the USDA website.
One local school being affected by these cuts is Purdue Polytechnic High School, a charter high school that has two campuses in Indianapolis.
Shana Cash, the director of Health and wellness for Purdue Polytechnic told IndyStar that they had applied for a $50,000 Farm to School grant that was meant to help their Englewood campus with its urban farm operations.
Cash said the funding would have helped them purchase equipment like a walk-in cooler, that would store the food produced on their school farm and integrate the locally grown food into the school's nutrition program.
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'In a school where nearly 70% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the importance of providing access to fresh, healthy meals cannot be overstated, particularly given the food insecurity many families face,' Cash said.
Karen Spangler, the policy director at the National Farm to School Network, which works to provide more education to children about food systems and supports delivering more locally grown food to students, said that the USDA funding is one of the only dedicated funding sources for farm-to-school activities.
At a time where everything is more expensive for schools and farmers, Spangler said, having this funding suddenly taken away adds another layer of difficulty for these local schools and farms.
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Spangler said that even if the funding does come back in 2026, there is a cost to losing the momentum for these projects.
'Losing the time to plan and obviously for people like farmers, they were already planning for and investing in things for their season for a harvest that they may not be actually delivering until September,' Spangler said. 'Schools also have a super long time frame for purchasing for school projects.'
Since 2013, Indiana has received around $2.4 million in farm-to-school grants, according to the National Farm to School Network's dashboard.
Contact IndyStar K-12 education reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@ Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana schools face setback as USDA suddenly halts farm to school grants
