2022 California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

No. Please see the Cost Share section of the RFA on page 11.

Please review the Eligibility and Exclusions section of the RFA on pages 12–19. Please review the Eligibility Decision Tree for additional guidance.

Yes, if you meet the eligibility requirements outlined in the Eligibility and Exclusions section of the RFA. Please note that activities funded under the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program cannot replace activities funded by another federal or state grant program. In the application, USDA Farm to School Grant recipients, recipients of other federal grant programs, recipients of other CDFA or State grants, and previous grant recipients of this program must address how their proposed project supplements rather than replaces efforts funded by the other programs or a previous cycle of this grant program.

Please review the Allowable and Unallowable Costs section of the RFA on pages 20–36.

Yes, these costs are allowable in all four funding tracks. Please review the Allowable and Unallowable Costs section of the RFA on pages 20–36 for additional details.

Grant applicants must complete and submit applications electronically via the online WizeHive grant application portal.
Please review the How to Apply section of the RFA on page 40.
Please view the video tutorial for how to use the WizeHive grant application portal for additional guidance.

Yes. Applicants to all four funding tracks must use the CDFA 2022 budget worksheet.
Applicants to Tracks 1, 2, and 3 must use the CDFA 2022 project work plan template.
Applicants to Track 4 must use the CDFA 2022 letter of intent template.
Applicants to Track 2 must use the CDFA 2022 additional organizational data worksheet, if needed.

The grant term is up to 24 months, from December 1, 2022 through November 30, 2024. Your proposed grant project timeline needs to occur within this time period, but it does not need to fill the entire length of the grant term. Please note that grant recipients cannot expend grant funds before December 1, 2022 or after November 30, 2024.

Yes, eligible entities may apply to multiple funding tracks. Tracks 1, 3, and 4 limit eligible entities to one application (as the lead applicant) in each track. Entities may serve as a partner on any number of Track 1, 3, and/or 4 applications. For Track 2, eligible entities may apply once as the lead applicant and multiple times as a supporting project partner. Eligible entities that submit applications in multiple tracks must ensure that projects are not duplicative and there is no duplication of project costs in order for the CDFA to consider each application. If an applicant submits competitive applications in multiple tracks, it is possible to receive a grant award in multiple tracks. We recommend that applicants thoroughly review the review criteria for each funding track to see how to submit a competitive application. The external reviewers will score applications based on this review criteria. To explore the full review criteria for each funding track, you can visit the links below:

• Track 1 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 2 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 3 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 4 Application Questions and Review Criteria

It is hard to say how likely it is that two projects from the same area will receive funding in the same funding track until we know how many competitive applications we receive in each funding track and the geographic areas each application represents. Therefore, we encourage collaboration among partners in the same geographic area, particularly in Track 2 and in Track 3. Please note that the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program aims to distribute awards geographically across California to the extent possible. To explore the full review criteria for each funding track, you can visit the links below:

• Track 1 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 2 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 3 Application Questions and Review Criteria
• Track 4 Application Questions and Review Criteria

First, we would like to note that in question 15, it is allowable for a Track 1 applicant to propose to procure whole or minimally processed food from their school garden or school farm for school meals in order to meet the required component of Track 1 to “procure California grown or produced, whole or minimally processed foods for incorporation into school meals.” Please see page 20 of the RFA > Track 1 Allowable and Unallowable Costs > CA Food Procurement Costs. Then, for questions 20, 21, and 22 in the Healthy, Equitable, Resilient Food System section of the application, there are two scenarios:

• If your own district/school operates the school garden/farm, then you should not include the school garden/farm in your response to questions 20, 21, or 22.
• If a food producer (including a person, group of individuals, non-profit organization, or Tribal government entity) leases, rents, or has a written agreement for the school land AND operates the land as its own farm and that is who you are procuring food from, then you may include that food producer in your response to questions 20, 21, or 22.

Applicants may determine what regional means to them. The Track 2 review criteria does not have a specific definition of “regional,” but rather will evaluate whether an applicant clearly demonstrates how the project will make regional or statewide food system impact that meaningfully supports more than one farm to school implementing organization (i.e., public school district, county office of education, and/or directly funded charter school) and what the scale of that impact will be.

The answer differs slightly by track:

• For Track 1, no. Please review the Track 1 review criteria to see how to submit a competitive application in this track.
• For Track 2, not necessarily. Please review the Track 2 review criteria to see how to submit a competitive application in this track. The highest scoring category for Track 2 is Community Need (worth up to 40 out of 100 points); this category essentially asks who your project will serve and if it will serve communities with the greatest need. In this scoring category, a larger geographic area and larger number of students doesn’t necessarily increase the competitiveness of a Track 1 or 2 proposal but serving students with the greatest need does. However, please note that for Track 2, projects must focus on regional or statewide food system impact that meaningfully supports more than one farm to school implementing organization (i.e., public school district, county office of education, and/or directly funded charter school). Part of Question 17 in the Project Description section of the application asks, “How will your project make regional or statewide food system impact that meaningfully supports more than one farm to school implementing organization and what will the scale of that impact be?” The review criteria will evaluate whether an applicant clearly demonstrates this.
• For Track 3, reaching a larger number of young children may increase the competitiveness of a proposal. Please review the Track 3 review criteria to see how to submit a competitive application in this track. When making Track 3 award determinations, the CDFA will seek to maximize impact by considering relative project reach (i.e., number of young children served, number of ECE providers engaged) among child center applicants and, separately, among farm to ECE support organization applicants. Child care centers may apply in partnership with other ECE providers (e.g., other child care centers, family child care homes, or family, friend, or neighbor settings) if they would like to increase their project reach.
• For Track 4, no. Please review the Track 4 review criteria to see how to submit a competitive application in this track.

No. School districts and charter schools are not eligible to apply to Track 4. However, public school districts and directly funded charter schools may be eligible to apply to Track 1 and/or Track 2, and public school districts may be eligible to apply to Track 3. Please review the Eligibility and Exclusions for these tracks on pages 12–17 of the RFA.

Yes. Please note that this question requires a two-part response:

• First, for context, page 19 of the RFA states that school districts are not eligible to apply to Track 4. However, a food producer, including an individual or non-profit organization, that operates a farm on school district property may apply to Track 4. Track 4 defines a California food producer as a person, group of individuals, non-profit organization, or Tribal government entity that leases, rents, or owns land in California (whether the land is publicly owned, privately owned, or Tribal land) and cultivates crops, raises livestock, and/or uses Indigenous food production practices on this land, and/or a California seafood harvester.
• Second, in response to your question and based on this context, we ask you three questions:
  1. Are you a person, group of individuals, non-profit organization, or Tribal government entity that leases or rents school-owned land in California (or alternatively, has a written agreement such as an MOU for school-owned land in California)?
  2. Do you and the school district consider you (if you are an individual food producer) or your organization to be the operator of that land (rather than considering the school or district to be the operator of the land)?
  3. Do you (if you are an individual food producer) or your organization cultivate crops, raise livestock, and/or use Indigenous food production practices on this land?
• If you answer yes to all three questions, then you are eligible to apply to Track 4 as a food producer. Please make sure to very clearly describe the relationship between the school district and you (if you are an individual food producer) or your organization in question 7b in the Track 4 application, and please ensure that the school district very clearly describes the relationship in the Letter of Intent, question 2.


• If you do not answer yes to all three questions, and/or if you or your organization plays a supporting role to co-operate the land but the school considers itself to be the operator of the land, then you are not eligible to apply to Track 4. However, the school district may be eligible to apply to Track 1 (and write you or your organization in as a contractor if desired) and/or you and the school district may be eligible to apply together to Track 2. We recommend communicating with your school district and local partners about these options and reviewing the Track 1 and 2 eligibility criteria on pages 12–15 of the RFA.

No. Track 4 is for food producers to apply directly. Farm to school producer support organizations and food hubs are not eligible to apply to Track 4. However, food producer support organizations and food hubs may be eligible to apply to Track 2 as a farm to school support organization in partnership with food producers. They may propose projects that will increase collaboration and coordination between California food producers and school nutrition services departments to increase procurement of California grown or produced, whole or minimally processed foods. The maximum award amount for Track 2 is $500,000, which is higher than Track 4 to allow for farm to school support organizations to scale up the award by, for example, scaling up their food producer partners and thus make broader impact beyond an individual food producer. The proposed project budget for Track 2 may incorporate mini grants to individual food producers. Please note that farm to school support organizations that apply to Track 2 must partner with at least one farm to school implementing organization (i.e., public school district, county office of education, or directly funded charter school) and their partnership must focus on regional or statewide food system impact that meaningfully supports more than one farm to school implementing organization. The individual food producers with whom a farm to school support organization partners for the Track 2 application may also be eligible to apply individually to Track 4. Please see the list of eligible farm to school support organizations for Track 2 in the Eligibility and Exclusions section of the RFA on pages 13–14 to see if your food producer support organization fits any of these eligible entity types.

No. Private schools, non-public schools, and homeschools are not eligible to apply to any funding track of the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program and may not participate as partners on an application, with one exception: these schools may participate in a Track 2 project as a contractor that provides technical assistance to the project partnership, if applicable.

No. Please see details for each track below:

• Track 1 grant projects do not need to serve every school within the applicant’s organization. Additionally, Track 2 grant projects do not need to serve every school within the lead applicant’s organization or within supporting project partners’ organizations.
  • Applicants will have the opportunity to identify in the application whether the proposed project will serve all schools or target one or more specific school sites within a school district, county office of education, or directly funded charter school. If the proposed project will target specific school sites, applicants must name them and briefly describe why they are targeting those sites. Certain questions in the application (e.g., about community need) will also direct applicants to tailor their responses to only the schools that the project will serve.
  • Please note that all Track 1 applicants need to submit a letter of support from the school nutrition services director (or equivalent district-wide/organization-wide decision-maker) who ultimately oversees and coordinates the school meal program at their organization. Similarly, all Track 2 applicants need to submit a letter of support from the school nutrition services director (or equivalent district-wide/organization-wide decision-maker) who ultimately oversees and coordinates the school meal program at each farm to school implementing organization that is part of the project partnership. In addition, applicants are welcome to submit a letter of support from the decision-maker at the specific school site(s) with which they are partnering for their project, if applicable.
• Track 3 grant projects do not need to serve every early care and education (ECE) site within a multi-site child care center. Please note that multi-site child care centers include public school districts with multiple preschool, transitional kindergarten, and/or Head Start sites.
  • Child care center applicants will have the opportunity to identify which ECE sites within their organization their project will serve. Please note that when making Track 3 award determinations, the CDFA will seek to maximize impact by considering relative project reach (i.e., number of young children served, number of ECE providers engaged) among child center applicants and, separately, among farm to ECE support organization applicants.
• Track 4 grant projects do not need to serve every school within their school-based partner entity’s organization. Please see page 18 of the RFA for important Track 4 eligibility criteria regarding eligible partner entities and the required letter of intent.

No. Applicants to all four funding tracks have the flexibility to determine which of the allowable costs they would like to incorporate into their proposed project. Projects are not required to utilize grant funds for each type of allowable cost and applicants may skip any spending categories in the budget worksheet that are not applicable to their proposed project. However, all applicants must demonstrate in the Project Description and Budget/Narrative sections of the application how their proposed project will meet the goals of the applicable funding track, as outlined in the Four Funding Tracks section of the RFA.

• For specific guidance regarding Track 1, please see the introductory paragraph to the Track 1 allowable and unallowable costs section on page 20 of the RFA.
• For specific guidance regarding Track 3, please see the introductory paragraph to the Track 3 allowable and unallowable costs section on page 28 of the RFA.

Yes. Please see details for each track below:

• Track 1: The CDFA encourages public school districts, county offices of education, and directly funded charter schools with preschool, transitional kindergarten, and/or Head Start programs to include those programs in their Track 1 project, and to explore the Track 3 grant opportunity if interested in maximizing funding for farm to early care and education.
• Track 2: Track 2 partnerships may incorporate early care and education (ECE) partners into their proposed project as long as the partnership includes the required combination of partners and focuses on regional or statewide food system impact that meaningfully supports more than one farm to school implementing organization, as defined above, that serves elementary and/or secondary students. Farm to ECE support organizations that would solely like to focus on farm to ECE in their proposed project should apply to Track 3.
• Track 3: At least 50% of the students that each project serves must be young children birth through age five (i.e., infants, toddlers, and/or preschoolers). Projects may also include school-age children if they attend the ECE sites that the project will serve.
• Track 4: California food producers may partner with center-based programs for children that participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

No. The CDFA cannot assist in the preparation of grant applications and cannot provide specific feedback on grant project ideas to ensure the competitiveness of the grant process for all. However, we are eager to support you during the application process in the following ways:

• We can answer informational questions via email: For general assistance and questions related to the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program process, please email us anytime at cafarmtoschool@cdfa.ca.gov.
• We are hosting Weekly Grant Webinars with live Q&A: Our Farm to School team has set aside weekly time dedicated to live conversation through our Grant Webinars, where we give a brief overview of the program and then reserve the majority of the time for Q&A. We encourage you to join if you’re able. Please visit the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program website to register or to view the webinar recordings.
• We recommend reviewing the review criteria: To write a successful grant application, we recommend that you thoroughly read the review criteria for the funding track to which you are applying, as this is what the external technical review committee will use to score applications. You can find the review criteria for each funding track on the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program website.
• We recommend reading the summaries of past projects: You can read the summaries of past projects that received funding in Tracks 1 and 2. Since Tracks 3 and 4 are new this year, we don't yet have examples of those.
• We recommend reviewing the weekly Q&A document: We are updating this Q&A document on a weekly basis throughout the application period with questions we’ve received and the answers we've provided.