Purpose

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allocated $518,028 from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act to South Carolina to provide National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Equipment Assistance subgrants to School Food Authorities (SFA). The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) will use a competitive process to award a total of $518,028 in equipment assistance subgrants to eligible SFAs that participate in the NSLP.

The purpose of this program is to enable SFAs to serve healthier meals, improve food safety, and maintain and/or expand their School Breakfast Program (SBP). Any SFA is eligible to receive a subgrant based on the following criteria:

• Age of the food service equipment or lack of appropriate items.
• Ability of food service equipment to increase the efficiency of SFA procurement, food storage, and distribution/service.
• Availability of existing state and local funding for equipment purchases.
• Strategies for adopting lunchroom changes that provide more convenience and appeal to the students.
• Opportunities to realize meaningful impacts on nutrition and quality of meals.

Program Office

Heath and Nutrition

Eligible Applicants

Any SFA may apply for a subgrant on behalf of any of its schools/sites that currently participate in the NSLP.

To request funding for more than one school, an SFA must submit a separate application for each school. Schools that received funds for equipment in the previous year are eligible to apply for additional equipment items. However, all schools must meet all reporting requirements and may be subject to a site visit prior to award.

Total Funding Available

$518,028

Funding Details

Award amounts will be determined based on the quality of applications received and total funding requested. No subgrant will be awarded for more than $25,000; the balance for equipment costs exceeding this limit will be the responsibility of the SFA. Final budgets may be negotiated based on demonstrated needs. All subgrant awards are contingent upon total allocations to the SCDE by the USDA.

Project Term

April 15, 2024, through September 30, 2025

Application Due Date

February 26, 2024

Technical Assistance Session

The Office of Health and Nutrition will offer a technical assistance session for this funding round to assist all potential applicants with preparing and submitting applications. The session will provide an overview of the application components and the submission process via Adobe Connect on January 30, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. This session is highly recommended for all applicants as the application components and submission process has changed this year.

No password is required to join the session. Participants should enter their full names when logging into the session. Participants will be able to log in 30 minutes prior to the start of the session to test their equipment’s audio and video settings and to access handouts. While participation is not mandatory in order to apply, it is highly recommended.

Documents

Request for Proposals (Download document and save to your files -DOCX, 1.68mb - 1/25/24)
Link to Online Application

Program Web page

Office of Health and Nutrition