New York State Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Program 2024 Round 2

The NYS Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant Program will encourage the use of fresh New York State farm products in meal preparation for K-12 school children, reduce food insecurity, increase market opportunities for New York State producers, and strengthen the resiliency of our state’s food system. Additionally, this program will encourage workforce development by providing training for culinary arts, food processing, safe food handling and storage, logistics, delivery, and other community needs.

This grant program will require that facilities serve multiple school districts, support their local community, and provide workforce development opportunities. Grant funds are available for the costs of capital projects, including services, expenses, and grants for the cost of construction, renovation, alteration, rehabilitation, improvements, installation, acquisition, repair or replacement of buildings or equipment for the development of facilities to support the preparation and distribution of New York focused meals for regional school infrastructure, such as aggregation, storage hubs and/or commissary-type kitchens.

Funding Available $50,000,000 will be available over five years, with one $5,000,000 award to each of the eight regions listed below. $10,000,000 is available for the Regional School Food Infrastructure Grant 2024 Round 2, with two $5,000,000 awards being made to two separate regions. Once a grantee is awarded in a region, that region will be removed from consideration for future funding rounds. Regions awarded in Round 1 2023 and are excluded from being awarded in Round 2 are Western New York and North Country. Grantees can only apply for the full amount of $5,000,000 per proposal.

The following regions will be eligible for this grant:

Finger Lakes: Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, Yates

Southern Tier: Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins

Central New York: Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, Oswego

Mohawk Valley: Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego, Schoharie

Capital Region: Albany, Columbia, Greene, Saratoga, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Warren, Washington

Mid-Hudson: Duchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, Westchester

New York City: Bronx, Kings, New York, Richmond, Queens

Long Island: Nassau, Suffolk

Awarded in previous rounds and excluded from being awarded in Round 2:

Western New York: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara

North Country: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence

.Eligible Applicants

• Registered not-for-profit organizations (e.g., tax-exempt under section 501c(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code);

• Local Municipalities

• School Districts

• Boards of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES)

Applicants must be registered and prequalified in the Statewide Financial System Grants Management System, and the organizations’ document vault must be up to date. Applicants who are not registered or whose document vaults have expired will be disqualified. See Section 5.4 below for instructions on registering, qualifying, and maintaining pre-qualification. Public schoolsare exempt from pre-qualification. Registration and pre-qualification may take several weeks to complete, it is recommended to start the process as soon as possible.

Ineligible Applicants

• Entities or organizations not situated in New York State

• Private individuals

• For-Profit organizations

Project Duration Project contract terms will be up to five years; start date will be 3/15/25.

APPLICATION FORMAT

Applications must be submitted through the through the Statewide Financial System Grants Management System (SFS GM), https://www.sfs.ny.gov/ All sections of the application must be completed for you to submit your digital application.

Paper or emailed bids (applications) will NOT be accepted. Late bids will NOT be accepted.

Applicants must supply a project plan of work and project budget. The plan of work must be complete with objectives, tasks, timelines and deliverables.

Budgets should include personnel services described as “annual salary” multiplied by “% effort funded” or “hourly rate” x “anticipated hours” to equal “amount budgeted”. Equipment budgets do not need to include quotes or specific models but should describe type of equipment and use. If applicable, budget should include quotes for any proposed capital improvements.