Tennessee Schools Miss Canceled Farm-to-School Grant
A federal grant that helped Tennessee schools buy local food was eliminated in 2025. New USDA programs offer equipment funding but lack direct food purchasing support, leaving districts struggling with higher costs.
The Milan Special School District can no longer afford the local food it spent years learning to prepare. School Nutrition Director Vickie Dunaway said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's cancellation of the Local Food for Schools program in March 2025 was a major setback. That grant had helped her West Tennessee district buy fresh corn, squash, tomatoes, and beef from area farmers.
"We bought the equipment. Now I can't afford the food," Dunaway told the Tennessee Lookout. The program was cut amid Trump administration efforts to slash the federal budget. It had provided a direct pipeline of funding specifically for purchasing local foods, which are often more expensive than pre-processed commodity items.
New Federal Programs Announced
In late August, the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new slate of initiatives called "Harvest to Hallways." The programs aim to bring more American agricultural products into school cafeterias. They include up to $70 million for schools to update kitchen equipment and storage. An additional $25 million will be infused into the existing Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants.
The USDA will also offer guidance to help schools use their standard federal meal reimbursement dollars on local foods. A separate $32.5 million HHS program will help districts test new approaches. Dunaway called the move a step in the right direction but noted it does not change her budget's bottom line for purchasing ingredients.
We need both the equipment to process the fresh ingredients (and) a sustainable recurring revenue that helps make buying food possible long-term, she said.
Barriers for Small Districts
The application requirements for the new grants have not yet been published. The Tennessee Department of Education is awaiting guidance from the USDA, according to Director of Media Amanda Chin. Nonprofit leaders and school officials say the grant application process itself is a significant hurdle for smaller, less-resourced districts.
Samantha Smith Goyret and Caroline Ideus are co-directors of the Northwest Tennessee Local Food Network. Their nonprofit secured a $500,000 Patrick Leahy grant this year to train cafeteria workers in five districts. They said the federal grant process tends to favor organizations that already have capacity and experience.
We worked with several smaller school districts to help write Farm to School grants this past cycle, but they weren't awarded because they're not strong enough, they're not big enough, Smith Goyret said. So what the government is doing, it's really fueling the organizations that already have that capacity.
Smith Goyret identified three main barriers to offering local food in schools: education, equipment, and a lack of dedicated funding. The new grants could help with the first two, but the loss of direct purchasing power remains.
The Impact of Lost Funding
The canceled Local Food for Schools program was a pandemic-era initiative. Under the outgoing Biden administration, it had earmarked about $660 million for schools and childcare institutions to buy local food in 2025. Another $500 million was set aside for local food purchases by food banks.
That was a direct pipeline to the schools for them to use for local food, period, Ideus said. So these grants that they're dibbling out are nice, but it's not $1 billion. She called the loss of that program a huge blow. Having both the project-based grants and the direct purchasing funding would be the ultimate combination, she added.
Schools operate on tight budgets, reimbursed a set amount by the federal government for each eligible meal served. Local foods often cannot compete on price with bulk commodity products. Even wholesale, farmers still have to make ends meet. They're not charitable organizations. They're businesses as well, Smith Goyret said.
Dunaway said the cost of all food is rising. She can now only purchase sausage and beef from a local source on special occasions. A USDA spokesperson pointed to existing programs like USDA Foods, which allows schools to order domestically produced items using preset entitlements. The spokesperson also highlighted $45 million issued in 2026 through Farm to School grants.
The Broader Landscape
According to the USDA's 2023 Farm to School Census, nearly two-thirds of school food authorities reported serving local foods that year. Those districts spent nearly $1.8 billion on local food purchases, representing about 16% of their total food spending. About half of that spending went toward local milk.
The same census found that 42% of participating school food authorities reported challenges with the availability of local foods. Another 35% reported difficulties with cost. The next Farm to School Census is scheduled for 2027.
Dunaway said if any of the new federal opportunities provide funding to directly purchase fresh, local food, she will be the first to apply. Otherwise, she believes the money might be better spent on schools that lack kitchen equipment entirely. She acknowledged that applying for grants is a major challenge for small districts with limited staff. For now, her district's shift toward scratch-made cooking is on hold, constrained by the budget for ingredients.
