§2.Access to local foods: Patrick Leahy farm to school program
This section revises the Patrick Leahy Farm to School program, which provides grants and technical assistance to connect eligible schools with local agricultural producers to improve access to local foods. (As background, the program supports school procurement of local foods, gardens, and related education under the National School Lunch Act.)
Specifically, the section (1) adds definitions of agricultural producer (i.e., farmer, rancher, or fisher, including of farm-raised fish), eligible institution, and farm to school program (i.e., activities benefiting eligible institutions through farm or garden maintenance, local procurement, or agriculture/nutrition/food education); (2) expands program assistance to eligible institutions (from eligible schools), State/local/Tribal agencies, Indian tribal organizations, agricultural producers, land-grant colleges and universities (newly eligible), and nonprofits through grants, technical assistance, research, and evaluation (from grants and technical assistance); (3) authorizes additional competitive grant uses including technical assistance with training and implementation of agriculture/nutrition/food educational activities; (4) directs the Secretary to improve local food procurement/distribution options (e.g., via aggregation, processing, transportation, and distribution projects), limits total awards to recipients to $500,000 with terms not exceeding 3 years, and prohibits grants used solely for conferences; (5) authorizes waivers or modifications of matching funds requirements for highest-priority projects and allows Tribal agencies to use certain federal funds (e.g., from Indian Health Service) to meet the nonfederal share; and (6) revises and expands grant award priorities to include serving high proportions of socially disadvantaged children via experiential/culturally appropriate education, expanding local commodity selections for institutions, addressing chronic diet-related health issues, and—specifically for Tribal communities—prioritizing traditional foods from Tribal producers.