Sharing some extra info about this Farm to School grant based on some conversations some of us had here in the Community last year. If you have questions or advice to share about your experience with this grant, please share that here!

General consensus from those of you who have applied for this grant before....this application process is a beast and you definitely need to start as soon as possible!!! 

There are two USDA-hosted informational webinars about this grant (11/1 and 11/2). They each cover different content so you may want to plan to attend both (info is in the link Em shared).

Last year, we hosted a couple of last-minute peer applicant support calls through the Kids Garden Community to try to support each other through the process. If there's interest this year, we can plan to host those Zoom calls again. 

We have also connected with the USDA and are discussing whether they could lead an informational session that is specific to applicants applying for youth garden-related programs and projects. The feedback last year was that the informational webinars the USDA holds are mostly a reiteration of the information that is available on their grant site. We're hoping through a separate session for you all that they could share more targeted information and have more time to answer your questions. 

Here are the takeaways from the peer Zoom calls we held last year in case this is helpful to anyone:

• Put together a team of several people who can help with the application. There are many parts to the application (gathering letters of support, preparing a budget, registering for various government platforms, writing the project narrative, etc.) and this can help take the burden off just one person and also speed up the process.
• This grant typically has funding priorities. If you do not meet those priorities on your own, consider developing a meaningful partnership as part of your project. 
• Get started early! This is an intense application with many parts and many applicants encounter technical issues with the application platforms. 
• It was also shared that in 2020 there were only 200 applicants and 78% of applicants were awarded a grant. This is a pretty high award rate! 

Last, one of the most helpful resources to look at might be the list of previous applicants and their projects for inspiration. 

Good news! We've scheduled a special info session on 11/8 for anyone interested in applying for this 2024 Farm to School Grant for a youth garden-related project/program. We want to know what questions you have to help inform the content of this session!

This session will consist of:

1. Grant information presented by the USDA
2. Tips and lessons learned from grantees
3. Q&A and peer support

We're encouraging you to attend the two USDA Getting Started webinars on November 1st and 2nd and then bring your additional questions to this session! 

The USDA is limited in the answers and support they can give related to specific applicant questions so we're hoping to leave plenty of time for peer support to try to assist with questions that they can't answer. So, if you've applied before, we'd love to have you on the call to give advice and help answer questions!!!

November 8, 2023
3-4:30 PM ET

REGISTER HERE

Sharing some extra info about this Farm to School grant based on some conversations some of us had here in the Community last year. If you have questions or advice to share about your experience with this grant, please share that here!

General consensus from those of you who have applied for this grant before....this application process is a beast and you definitely need to start as soon as possible!!! 

There are two USDA-hosted informational webinars about this grant (11/1 and 11/2). They each cover different content so you may want to plan to attend both (info is in the link Em shared).

Last year, we hosted a couple of last-minute peer applicant support calls through the Kids Garden Community to try to support each other through the process. If there's interest this year, we can plan to host those Zoom calls again. 

We have also connected with the USDA and are discussing whether they could lead an informational session that is specific to applicants applying for youth garden-related programs and projects. The feedback last year was that the informational webinars the USDA holds are mostly a reiteration of the information that is available on their grant site. We're hoping through a separate session for you all that they could share more targeted information and have more time to answer your questions. 

Here are the takeaways from the peer Zoom calls we held last year in case this is helpful to anyone:

• Put together a team of several people who can help with the application. There are many parts to the application (gathering letters of support, preparing a budget, registering for various government platforms, writing the project narrative, etc.) and this can help take the burden off just one person and also speed up the process.
• This grant typically has funding priorities. If you do not meet those priorities on your own, consider developing a meaningful partnership as part of your project. 
• Get started early! This is an intense application with many parts and many applicants encounter technical issues with the application platforms. 
• It was also shared that in 2020 there were only 200 applicants and 78% of applicants were awarded a grant. This is a pretty high award rate! 

Last, one of the most helpful resources to look at might be the list of previous applicants and their projects for inspiration. 

Hello Amelia, 

I registered for the 11/08 webinar, but I put it in my calendar for 11/09, so I missed it. Is it possible to access a recording of it anywhere? I have never applied for this grant before and I could use the guidance. Thank you!

Good news! We've scheduled a special info session on 11/8 for anyone interested in applying for this 2024 Farm to School Grant for a youth garden-related project/program. We want to know what questions you have to help inform the content of this session!

This session will consist of:

1. Grant information presented by the USDA
2. Tips and lessons learned from grantees
3. Q&A and peer support

We're encouraging you to attend the two USDA Getting Started webinars on November 1st and 2nd and then bring your additional questions to this session! 

The USDA is limited in the answers and support they can give related to specific applicant questions so we're hoping to leave plenty of time for peer support to try to assist with questions that they can't answer. So, if you've applied before, we'd love to have you on the call to give advice and help answer questions!!!

November 8, 2023
3-4:30 PM ET

REGISTER HERE

Sharing some extra info about this Farm to School grant based on some conversations some of us had here in the Community last year. If you have questions or advice to share about your experience with this grant, please share that here!

General consensus from those of you who have applied for this grant before....this application process is a beast and you definitely need to start as soon as possible!!! 

There are two USDA-hosted informational webinars about this grant (11/1 and 11/2). They each cover different content so you may want to plan to attend both (info is in the link Em shared).

Last year, we hosted a couple of last-minute peer applicant support calls through the Kids Garden Community to try to support each other through the process. If there's interest this year, we can plan to host those Zoom calls again. 

We have also connected with the USDA and are discussing whether they could lead an informational session that is specific to applicants applying for youth garden-related programs and projects. The feedback last year was that the informational webinars the USDA holds are mostly a reiteration of the information that is available on their grant site. We're hoping through a separate session for you all that they could share more targeted information and have more time to answer your questions. 

Here are the takeaways from the peer Zoom calls we held last year in case this is helpful to anyone:

• Put together a team of several people who can help with the application. There are many parts to the application (gathering letters of support, preparing a budget, registering for various government platforms, writing the project narrative, etc.) and this can help take the burden off just one person and also speed up the process.
• This grant typically has funding priorities. If you do not meet those priorities on your own, consider developing a meaningful partnership as part of your project. 
• Get started early! This is an intense application with many parts and many applicants encounter technical issues with the application platforms. 
• It was also shared that in 2020 there were only 200 applicants and 78% of applicants were awarded a grant. This is a pretty high award rate! 

Last, one of the most helpful resources to look at might be the list of previous applicants and their projects for inspiration.