Sponsors (4)
The bill expands and prioritizes grant support, technical assistance, and education to connect local and Tribal producers with schools and institutions, increasing local market opportunities, but imposes caps, administrative limits, waiver rules, and contains a funding-text ambiguity that may restrict larger infrastructure projects, strain implementation, and create short-term uncertainty.
Local farmers, fishers, and small producers can access new grants for aggregation, processing, transportation, and distribution to sell to schools and other institutions, increasing local market opportunities and farm income.
Schools and other eligible institutions (including universities and nonprofits) can receive grant support for garden programs, local procurement, and agriculture/nutrition education, expanding hands-on learning and local food use in institutions.
Tribal producers and institutions are prioritized and can use certain Federal benefits as matching funds, improving Tribal access to program resources.
Institutions and producer cooperatives needing larger or longer-term infrastructure investments are constrained by the $500,000 and 3-year grant cap, limiting the viability of major projects.
Limiting administrative costs to 5% may strain state and local program administration and reduce capacity for effective implementation, monitoring, and outreach.
Permitting waivers of matching requirements risks reducing Federal leverage and could shift more program costs to taxpayers if waivers are widely granted.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Amends the Farm to School Program to broaden definitions, add gardens/education/research, allow funding for procurement/distribution infrastructure, cap grants at $500K and allow matching waivers.
Official title: To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to reauthorize the farm to school program, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 17, 2025 by Stacey E. Plaskett · Last progress November 17, 2025
Revises and expands the federal Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program to broaden who qualifies, what activities are eligible, and how grants can be used. It updates definitions (including “agricultural producer,” “eligible institution,” and “farm to school program”), explicitly allows garden projects, local procurement, education, research and evaluation, and adds authority to fund aggregation, processing, transportation, and distribution to improve local procurement. It also sets grant limits and award terms (maximum $500,000 and up to 3 years), requires the Secretary to align award size/duration with project scope, permits waiver or modification of matching requirements for high-priority projects (with a public waiver process), allows certain Tribal counting of federal benefits as match when appropriate, and reorganizes grant priority language to emphasize institutions and maximizing practicable implementation of program goals.