Year‐Round Farm-to-School Food Program Wins USDA Grant

D.C. Central Kitchen's grant-winning project, “Capacity for Change: Growing a Year‐Round Farm to School Program,” will increase its capacity to process and store more local produce. The $99,998 grant is the District organization's first successful competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Wednesday the USDA's announced the agency's first-ever Farm to School Grants, which will give $4.5 million to 68 projects, across 37 states and the District of Columbia.

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"This is a big moment for us," said Alex Moore, the deputy director of development at the D.C. Central Kitchen.

The D.C. organization has been a farm to school food provider to D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) for three years and currently manages meal programs at nine public schools and one private school in the District. For two years D.C. Central kitchen served meals at Deal Middle School in Northwest D.C., but now focuses on schools in Ward 7.

“When schools buy food from nearby producers, their purchasing power helps create local jobs and economic benefits, particularly in rural agricultural communities,” said Kathleen Merrigan, the Agriculture deputy secretary in announcing the awards.

Moore said the grant is significant in both what it allows the organization to do and what it says about their mission.

D.C. Central Kitchen would use the grant to purchase new equipment, like additional freezer space and dicing machines.

"These items will allow us to demonstrate increased purchases of summer and fall local crops, increase our freezer storage capacity by 200%, and invest $165,000 in local farmers and growers during the grant period – an increase of 43% over 2011," they wrote in their grant application.

While D.C. Central kitchen tackles issues of hunger and homlessness, Moore said the grant highlights its role as a healthy school meal provider as well.

The grant removes D.C. Central Kitchen from "traditional conversations" around homelessness and hunger and asserts its role in the school food movement, said Moore.

He says they hope that the D.C. Central Kitchen standards of "paying people a good wage and employing people in a good job," while providing healthy, local foods will be a model for larger producers.

Moore summed it up, "You can do good and do well."

Want to learn more about farm to school programs in DCPS? Check out this series on the DC School Food Revolution. And read this story about how D.C. Central Kitchen fits into the DCPS school meals scene.