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Local Foods for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS)
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is excited to announce that Illinois will be participating in the USDA's Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS). This new program will provide 7.3 million dollars to ISBE, that will be distributed to eligible schools to purchase local unprocessed and minimally processed food. ISBE plans to issue non-competitive sub-awards of these funds to School Food Authorities (SFAs) that participate in the National School Lunch and/or School Breakfast Program for use during next school year (2023-2024).
The goal of LFS is to increase purchases of domestic, locally grown foods from local producers, small businesses, and socially disadvantaged farmers/producers for distribution to schools in order to build a more resilient local food chain by expanding and strengthening local and regional markets.
ISBE is currently working on guidance and resources and plans to share more information on this funding opportunity, how it will work and how to apply in the coming months.
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USDA Press Release
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School Survey - Information and Link
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Fast Facts and Timeline
- Are you a farmer, rancher, or producer that would be interested in selling local foods to schools?
- Are you a distributor that would be interested in selling local foods to Schools?
- Are you a food processor that minimally processes local foods (this includes washing, cutting, freezing, canning, drying and/or minimal meat/poultry/fish processing such as cutting or grinding) who would be interested in selling local foods to schools?
Share community success stories on implementation of Farm to CNP by emailing them to
lblough@isbe.net.
