School Food RESOURCES

• Crafting Well Balanced Menus in Educational Settings. A plant-based food service guide for schools. Balanced. 
• Environmental Benefits of Meatless Monday and Plant-Based Eating. Meatless Mondays.  
• Healthy Kids, Happy Planet! Standardized Recipe Collection. Cool bean quantity recipes by season for standardized school meals. 
• Healthy School Recipes. Culinary solutions for K-12 school professionals and nutrition programs, with trainings, recipes, equipment information and other resources. Healthy School Recipes. 
• K-12 Recipes. USDA-creditable plant-based school food recipes designed by expert chefs and registered dietitians, with nutritional information and downloadable recipes. Forward Food. 
• Meatless Monday for K-12 Schools. Recipes, lesson plans, case studies, expert consultants, and other resources. Meatless Monday campaign. 
• Parent Guide to Plant-Based K-12 Service. Menu changes, explained. One Meal a Day for the Planet. 
• Plant-Based Food Service Guide for K-12 Schools. Kid-approved, reimbursable school lunch recipes, school food guide and toolkit. One Meal a Day for the Planet. 
• Plant-Based Meal Options in CNP. California Department of Education’s guide to definitions, background, health benefits, trainings, and policy options for participants in Child Nutrition Programs that are interested in offering plant-based meals in schools. 
• Plant-Based Product & Vendor Directory. The easiest way to find plant-based products and connect directly with the companies making them. Includes searchable function for K-12 creditable products, food type, fiber-rich, or by distributor. Balanced. 
• Plant Powered Recipes Inspired by Foods from Around the World. Recipes for food service providers in school-sized quantities. Coalition for Healthy School Food. 
• Posters & Cafeteria PSAs.Healthy Kids, Happy Planet.  
• Quantity Cool Beans Cafeteria Recipes. Bean-based diverse, nutritious school food recipes at school food scale. Healthy Kids, Happy Planet. 
• Salad Bars to Schools. Program to donate salad bars to schools in the U.S. so that every child in the nation can have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Chef Ann Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation.
• School Food Institute. Training and certification, with courses on sustainable lunchrooms, healthy ingredients for kid meals, school food financing, operational models, procurement, recipes and menu development, school food marketing, lunchroom education and more. Chef Ann Foundation. 
• Scratch & Semi Scratch Recipes. A database of USDA-creditable freshly made or semi-freshly made recipes, including from leading external sources and experts. Balanced. 
• Taste Test Basics. Best practices, sample voting ballots and forms, advice. Food Corps.
• Taste Test Posters. Center for EcoLiteracy.
• The Lunch Box. The largest online resource for scratch cooking for schools. Chef Ann Foundation. 
• USDA Recipe Standardization Guide for School Nutrition Programs. Culinary Institute of Childhood Nutrition. 
• Vegan Back to School Recipes. Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. 

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• Cows and Climate Change. Factsheet. Center for Biological Diversity.
• Environmental Impacts of Slaughterhouses. Factsheet. Center for Biological Diversity.
• Factory Farming. Factsheet. Center for Biological Diversity.
• How Food Waste Hurts Wildlife. Factsheet. Center for Biological Diversity.
• Wildlife-Friendly School Food. Guide. Center for Biological Diversity.
• For Parents/Guardians and Students: Your Right to Request a Substitute for Cow’s Milk at School. Guide to requesting plant-based milks. Friends of the Earth.

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USDA 

• Crediting Tip Sheets in Child Nutrition Programs
• Crediting Traditional Indigenous Foods in Child Nutrition Programs
• Food Hub Resource Guide
• Incorporating Traditional Foods in Child Nutrition Program Menus 
• National School Lunch Meal Pattern chart 
• Meal Preparation Documentation 
• Menu Planner for School Meals

Institute of Child Nutrition 

• Basic Culinary Math for School Nutrition Professionals 
• Basics at a Glance: Recipe abbreviations, measurement conversions, portioning tools, and steamtable pan capacity. 
• Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs 
• Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs: Training Resources 
• FBG Module 1: Overview of the FBG for CNPs 
• FBG Module 2: Recipe Analysis Workbook (RAW) 
• Manager’s Corner: Standardized Recipes 
• Measuring Success with Standardized Recipes 
• No Time to Train: Identifying the Parts of a USDA Quantity Recipe 
• On the Road to Professional Food Preparation eLearning: Recipe Adjustments 
• STAR Strategies for Utilizing Standardized Recipes 
• USDA Recipe Standardization Guide for School Nutrition Programs 
• What’s Standard About Standardized Recipes?
• Why Use Standardized Recipes? Fact Sheet 

Grant Opportunities 

• California Department of Agriculture. Specialty Crop Block Grant program for producers. 
• Chef Ann Foundation. Offering grants for Healthy School Foods Pathway, Salad Bars to Schools, Get Schools Cooking and Partnerships for Local Agriculture and Nutrition Transformation in Schools (PLANTS) and Project Produce. 
• Eat the Change Grant. Annual grants in the Washington, D.C. area focused on educating and inspiring communities to eat more planet-friendly foods.
• Green Bronx Machine Grant. A variety of grants for plant-based food and education.
• Green Thumb Challenge Grant. Small funding opportunity for existing K-12 gardens. 
• Gro More Good Grassroots Grant. For any nonprofit organization, school district, university, government entity, or tax-exempt organization in the United States serving at least 15 youth and planning to use the funds to install new or improve existing youth gardens or greenspaces. 
• Herman’s Garden Seed Donation. For non-profits, schools, community gardens, and educational programs, or for community and education organizations who will either freely share the harvest or save seeds for others in need. 
• Lots of Compassion Grant. For any nonprofit organization, school district, university, government entity, or tax-exempt organization in the United States serving under-resourced communities looking to transform a vacant lot into a public garden space.
• Monarch Watch. For schools and education non-profits with administrative support and clear, long-term maintenance plans for a garden with three season nectar sources who would like to add milkweed to the garden.
• Native Farm to School Grant. First Nations NGO sponsoring youth sovereignty efforts.
• Nature Works Everywhere Garden Grant. Youth grants from The Nature Conservancy.
• No Kid Hungry North Carolina. Carolina Initiative, Summer Meals Intern, and other opportunities. 
• Project Learning Tree. Grants for environmental stewardship projects for students.
• Robin Greenfield Seeds for Schools. For students, parents, teachers, school administrators and community members who want seeds to plant at their schools, community gardens, or in other interesting ways.
• Seed Your Future. Educator grants.
• TSC “Dig-It” School Garden Grant Program. Open to K-5 Schools in California, Pennsylvania and Utah.
• USDA Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant. Annual grant for planning and implementing farm to school programs.
• Healthy Meals Incentive Grants. Grants available for rural and small school food authorities, recognition awards for school food authorities, food system transformation, and healthy meals.
• USDA CFPCGP Grant. One-time grants for nonprofits for 1-4 years to fight food insecurity through community food projects directed toward promoting self-sufficiency for low-income communities.
• Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Offered grants to support increasing plant-based meals in school districts. 
• Whole Kids Foundation. Offering grants for salad bars, gardens, young entrepreneurs, farm to school programs, and bee programs. 

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