Purpose
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) will use a competitive process to award equipment assistance subgrants to eligible School Food Authorities (SFAs) that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and did not receive an award in the competition earlier in 2024 that was funded under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub. L. 117-328).
The purpose of NSLP Equipment Assistance subgrants is to enable SFAs to serve healthier meals, improve food safety, and to help support the maintenance and/or expansion of the School Breakfast Program (SBP). An SFA is eligible to receive a subgrant based on the following criteria:
- The 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.
- The availability of existing state and local funding for equipment purchases.
- Strategies for adopting lunchroom changes that provide more convenience and appeal to the student.
- Opportunities to realize meaningful impacts on nutrition and quality of meals, to include the support for implementing updated nutrition requirements for school meals.
In a competitive subgrant process, the SFA must justify how the requested equipment, with a value of greater than $1,000, will help them serve healthier meals, support scratch cooking, improve food safety, store fresh food, upgrade equipment, and support the maintenance and/or expansion of the SBP.
Program Office
Office of Health and Nutrition
Eligible Applicants
An SFA may apply for a subgrant on behalf of its schools that
- currently participate in the NSLP, and
- did not receive an award in the competition earlier in 2024 that was funded under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub. L. 117-328).
To request funding for more than one school, an SFA must submit a separate application for each school. Other than FY 2023, schools that received funds for equipment in previous years 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
$168,118
Funding Detail
The SCDE anticipates awarding approximately 8 subgrants. Award amounts will be determined based on the quality of applications received and total funding requested. No subgrant will be awarded for more than $20,000.
Project Term
January 1, 2025, through September 30, 2025
Application Due Date
November 15, 2024
Technical Assistance Session
The Office of Health and Nutrition provided a technical assistance session for this funding round to assist all potential applicants with preparing and submitting applications on
October 16, 2024. Email
equipmentgrants@ed.sc.gov to access the recording.
Documents
Request for Proposals (DOCX, 1 mb - 10/14/24, Revised)
Online Application
Pre-Application Technical Assistance Session Frequently Asked Questions (DOCX, 80 kb - 10/24/24)
Program Office
Office of Health and Nutrition
